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“CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?” 


The Sheldon Six 
Rose 

BY 

GRACE M. REMICK 

w 

Author of 

“The Glenloch Girls” series, “The Sheldon Six— 
Anne,” etc. 



Illuitrited br 

Isabel M. Calby 


PHILADELPHIA 

THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY 
1921 





COPYRIGHT 
1931 BY 
THE PENN 
PUBLISHING 
COMPANY 



The Sheldon Six — Rose 



DEC -8 1921 


g)C!.A653014 


'Sv j 


Introduction 


The first book of The Sheldon Six series be- 
longed to Anne Sheldon, who was shy and un- 
sociable, and thought that without school and read- 
ing there would be no joy in life. Having to give 
them up for a while, she became, to her own sur- 
prise, the steering-gear of an imaginary family car, 
and in the process found that if she walked straight 
up to her troubles they were likely to vanish. 

Rose, Anne’s next younger sister, was rather a 
contrary-minded, unimaginative young person, 
eager for out-of-door sports, and inclined to slip 
out of anything that seemed like work. 

In this second book of the series. Rose, whom 
Anne has named the accelerator of the family car, 
begins to see herself and others in a different light. 
She makes new friends, is adopted by a little girl, 
begins to develop an imagination and decides that 
thinking is a truly bewildering occupation. 


3 




Contents 


I. 

The Song of the Train 




9 

II. 

A Light Box . 




22 

III. 

Twins to the Rescue 




33 

IV. 

A Choice of Rooms . 




54 

V. 

The Boy in the Wheel-Chair 




70 

VI. 

A Morning Call 




90 

VII. 

The Obtrusive Toilet-Table 




109 

VIII. 

‘‘ Ding ! Dong ! Bell ! ” . 




125 

IX. 

Gum-Shoe Golf 




150 

X. 

Mill Hollow . 




172 

XI. 

Little Brad 




192 

XII. 

Lissy Introduces Herself 




213 

XIII. 

Big Sisters and Brothers . 




230 

XIV. 

Chocolates to Doughnuts 




252 

XV. 

Neil Goes Away 




274 

XVI. 

A Camel and a Pink Rabbit 




296 

XVII. 

Good News 




320 

XVIII. 

The Blossom Tea-House . 




335 

XIX. 

A Permanent Peace . 




349 


s 



Illustrations 


“ Can You Keep a Secret ? ** , . , . Frontispiece 

PAGE 


“ He Isn’t a Pleasant Object to Hold, Is He ? ” 
“ It’s a New Game j Quite Fun, Too ” . 

“ She Is the Beeg Sister of Me ” . 

Oh, How Delicious ! ” 


82 

157 

243 

337 


The Sheldon Six— Rose 


I 



The Sheldon Six— Rose 


CHAPTER I 

THE SONG OF THE TRAIN 

The taxicab had been late and so delayed in 
reaching the station that, as soon as Rose saw the 
outside clock, she realized they had no time to spare. 
There was not a porter in sight, so, in her quick 
way, she divided up the bags and packages and 
sent her father and the children on ahead while she 
stayed behind to pay the driver. Then, with the 
largest suit-case and a good-sized package, she hur- 
ried after them. As she raced along the platform, 
cheeks rosy, bright hair blown and curly about her 
face, brown eyes shining, several persons turned to 
watch her join the tall man who was hurrying along 
with two girls and a boy. 

“ Let me carry the lunch-box,” the boy said as 
his sister caught up with them, and he tried to pull 
it out from under her arm. 

“ No, you don’t,” Rose answered firmly, taking 
a fresh grip on the package. “ I’ve had the care of 
this ever since we started, and I’m not going to have 
9 


THE SHELDON SIX 

it lost or left behind now. Chase ahead, Jimsey, 
and get a seat for Father.’’ 

Having guided her family into the car, Rose 
could see only one wholly empty seat, and into that 
she steered Father and Susan. Daddy had got up 
with one of his blinding headaches and he submitted 
to Rose’s generalship without a murmur. As 
usual, Susan protested but that made no difference 
to her stern elder sister who was looking to see 
where Connie and Jim would find room to bestow 
themselves. When that was accomplished Rose 
went farther back in the car, and dropped down in 
the seat with a woman who rather ungraciously 
moved several packages to make a place for her. 

“Is it now we’re going to open the lunch-box?” 
Susan, who had slid out of her seat almost as soon 
as she got into it, asked the question in a hissing 
whisper in Rose’s very ear. 

“Goodness, Susan, don’t take my head off! 
And don’t bother me about that lunch again. 
We’re not going to have it till we get out of this 
train and into the next one, but that won’t be long. 
Besides you had a hearty breakfast.” 

“I could ’most always eat a little something — 
one of EfBe’s sandwiches, or — or a cooky,” Susan 
persisted, knowing sadly that argument was use- 
less, but willing to expend her best efforts in the 
cause. 


lo 


THE SONG OF THE TRAIN 


“No, sir ! EfRe put up that lunch so’s we could 
have it this noon, and it’s not going to be opened 
till then. Don’t you remember everything’s packed 
so it will keep moist and nice? We couldn’t open 
it on this crowded train, anyway. And — ^mercy, 
Susan, someone’s going to get your seat if you 
don’t look out. That man almost took it.” 

“I left Gewaldine there. He wouldn’t sit on 
her,” Susan answered calmly, and then, “Couldn’t 
you pos-sib-ly let me hold the lunch-box so’s I 
could look at the outside?” 

“No! I’m the only one who can guard that 
box, and it’s going to stay right on my lap. You 
go back and take care of Daddy. I put you there 
because you don’t need as much room as Connie 
does.” 

“You’re only saying that to make me sit still,” 
Susan remarked, with a lingering look at the neatly- 
wrapped lunch-box, but she departed, nevertheless. 

Left to herself. Rose felt it was a relief to be able 
to share the seat with a stranger and be as gloomy 
as she pleased. On Daddy’s account they were 
taking two days instead of one for the journey to 
Brookfield, and yesterday, which was the longest 
part of the trip. Rose had sat with her father and 
had tried to seem interested and happy. She was 
sure she had tried, because it made her feel two- 
faced, and she had always prided herself that what- 


11 


THE SHELDON SIX 

ever else sHe might be she wasn’t that. The worst 
of it was she was afraid Daddy could see straight 
through her, and knew all the time she hated the 
idea of spending the summer in a little country 
town. 

She stared out of the window unseeingly as the 
train hurried through small towns, with now and 
again a quickening rush when there came long 
stretches of wooded country, freshly green in its 
spring garb. After a while the rhythmic sound of 
the car-wheels possessed her ear, and words fitted 
themselves to it. “ You’ve got to go — ^you’ve got 
to go — you’ve got ” 

“ Well, don’t I know it? ” her mind interrupted 
crossly. When her father had been taken ill some 
weeks before, and the doctor said this change was 
the quickest way to get him well. Rose had re- 
sponded with such unexpected cheerfulness that 
she had surprised her family and even herself. At 
the first moment of finding that Daddy was tired 
out and needed to be taken care of, it had seemed to 
her that no sacrifice on her part could be too gi’eat. 
Then, as the days went on, as she realized how 
hard it would be to leave her friends, and was as- 
sured by nearly every girl she met that by going 
away from Melford she would miss the happiest 
summer of her life, she began to consider herself a 
real martyr. 


12 


THE SONG OF THE TRAIN 


“ Ellis is the only one who knows how I really 
feel about it,” she thought with a sigh. “ Unless 
Daddy suspects. Nan’s in such a blaze of glory 
over taking the family to her house that she couldn’t 
possibly believe anyone might hate to go.” 

The tune of the car-wheels caught her ear again. 

“ You’ve got to go — you’ve got to ” she shook 

herself free from the persistent, irritating sound. 
“ I wish they had let me start ahead with Ellis,” 
her thought ran on. “ He and I could have got the 
place ready in no time for Father and the rest. I 
can work lots harder than Anne.” It did not occur 
to her that though she could work harder she rarely 
ever did, and that was why Anne was more to be 
depended upon. 

Towns and forests, sparkling brooks and distant 
hills flashed by as the train sped on, but to Rose 
there was nothing interesting, nothing beautiful in 
the landscape. After a long while her gaze came 
back into the car again, and as she looked along 
the aisle she could see Susan on her knees, with her 
arms on the back of the seat, nodding and winking 
at someone in the rear of the car. Rose frowned 
and made an imperative gesture which caught her 
sister’s eye and caused her to slide slowly out of 
sight. The next instant she realized that of course 
it was Jimsey at whom Susan was smiling, and she 
turned her head in time to see him wriggle out from 

13 


THE SHELDON SIX 

beside a fat man, and start on a swaying progress 
toward her. 

“ It’s the next station. Rose,” he said as he 
reached her side. “ I asked the conductor, and he 
says we’ve got to be lively ’bout getting out, ’cause 
it’s only a junction and this train’s in a hurry.” 

‘‘ Tell me some news. You’re hoarse as a crow, 
and your face is dirty, and your hair’s a fright.” 

“ Well, I guess yours would be.” Jim put up 
a grimy hand to smooth his fair locks, and blinked 
his smarting eyes. “ The smoke’s awful choky, and 
that man in the seat with me rubs my hair the wrong 
way every time he thinks of it.” 

“Wet the corner of this handkerchief and I’ll 
scrub some of the dirt off your face,” ordered Rose. 

Jimsey backed away with a grin. “ No, sir,” he 
said firmly. “ You’re not going to wash my face 
before all these people. When it comes to that 
your own face isn’t so awfully clean.” 

Much to his joy. Rose hastily opened the vanity- 
case which had been a parting gift from some of 
the girls and consulted a small mirror, while her 
young brother departed, pleasantly conscious that 
he had given her something besides his own blem- 
ishes to worry about. “ She needn’t think just be- 
cause she’s pretty and — and hair-curly that dirt 
won’t stick to her,” He mused, as he was jerked from 
side to side along the aisle. Jimsey was an artistic 

14 


THE SONG OF THE TRAIN 

soul, even though his last birthday had been only the 
eighth, and he secretly admired the prettiness of this 
sister; but, as he wisely concluded, there were other 
things that counted for more in the long run. 

“ Say, Connie, we’re going to get off pretty 
soon,” he said suddenly in the ear of a plump, 
brown-haired girl, who had had no hint of his ap- 
proach and was satisfyingiy startled. 

“ How long? ” demanded his sister, tearing her- 
self from the rapt contemplation of a worsted bag 
carried by the woman who sat beside her. She had 
been wondering if blue roses and green violets grew 
in this part of the country, and whether the woman 
herself had worked this amazing impossible 
bouquet. 

“ Oh, ’bout half an hour. And say, Connie, 
wouldn’t I better tell Susan to come and stand by 
you the minute the train begins to slow up? 
Daddy’s got two suit-cases and a headache, and he 
ought not to be bothered by a child.” 

“ I’ll take care of her,” said Connie, speaking 
softly, because she hated to disturb the slumber of 
her seatmate. As Jimsey left her she looked at her 
father, who was sitting with closed eyes. She 
wished she could go and put her hands on his fore- 
head the way she did at home, but of course that 
wouldn’t do on a crowded train. 

Plunk! Connie turned sharply to find her seat- 
15 


THE SHELDON SIX 

mate just waking from her nap, and beginning to 
grope for her bag which had slipped to the floor. 

“ Let me get it for you,” offered Connie, stoop- 
ing and bobbing up again all in the same moment 
with the bag in her hand. 

“ Scatteration! And thanks! I hope to goodness 
there isn’t anything broken. I’ve got some little 
things in there I wouldn’t break for a good deal. 
I carried them partly on account of their being 
safer.” 

There was a hint of laughter in her voice as she 
said the last words, and Connie smiled in response 
to the twinkle in the dark eyes that looked out from 
a weather-beaten face, brown as a nut. She had 
short grayish hair, and wore a mannish hat and 
coat, and Connie’s ready imagination suggested that 
she resembled an elderly sea-captain dressed up as 
a woman. There was nothing manly about her 
pleasant soft voice, however, nor about the anxiety 
she showed in investigating the contents of her bag. 
Connie gazed in astonishment at the number of 
small articles its gaping mouth revealed. One 
would hardly have supposed it could hold so many 
small boxes, which, unless their covers belied them, 
contained pins and hooks and eyes, buttons and 
snaps. 

“ I brought these because I was in such a hurry 
for them,” the woman remarked, “ not because I 

i6 


THE SONG OF THE TRAIN 

was afraid they’d break.” She took out a larger box 
which she opened carefully, disclosing a tiny set of 
doll’s furniture. Her strong-looking brown fingers 
handled the fragile things more delicately than any- 
one would have believed possible, and having satis- 
fied herself that all the little arms and legs were 
intact, she breathed a sigh of relief. “Aren’t they 
cunning? ” she questioned, turning with a smile to 
Connie. “ I got three more sets. I had the others 
sent, but I just had to bring this one for Emeline 
to see.” 

Connie admired the little chairs and tables enthu- 
siastically, but did not venture to touch one. She 
was burning to ask who Emeline was and why they 
needed four sets of furniture, and so many pins and 
hooks and snaps, but the knowledge that Rose was 
behind her and would perhaps notice that she was 
talking to a stranger made her restrain her ques- 
tions. Probably Emeline was her child and she was 
a dressmaker; they were always using and losing 
pins. Anyway, before they started on this journey, 
the last thing Rose had said to her had been, “ Now, 
Con, don’t talk to people and tell ’em all about the 
family,” and, of course, if she asked questions per- 
haps her neighbor would. Being twelve years old 
she supposed she ought not to feel so friendly with 
strangers. With a little sigh she stifled the remarks 
she wanted to make, and turned to look at Rose who 

17 


THE SHELDON SIX 


was next to her in age, but nearly three years older. 
It often seemed strange to Connie that not quite 
three years could make such a difference in feelings. 

It startled her to find that Rose was apparently 
looking straight at her, but after Connie had smiled 
reassuringly she realized that her sister’s frowning 
gaze wasn’t seeing her at all. So she turned back 
again just as her seatmate was putting the last boxes 
in her bag, and the woman looked up at her with 
a smile. “ Going far? ” she inquired pleasantly. 

“ Only to Shannon Junction on this train,” Con- 
nie answered, squirming under the consciousness 
that Rose’s eyes were boring holes in the back of 
her head. 

“ I get out at the Junction, too. Where do you 
go from there? ” 

Connie drew a deep breath; of course it would be 
rude not to answer when anyone took so much in- 
terest as this. “ We’re going to Brookfield to stay 
all summer in the house our Aunt Serena left to 
Anne. We’re the Sheldons.” She got it out as 
fast as she could, wanting to accomplish something 
before Rose could descend upon her. Then, not 
feeling a hand on her shoulder, she stole another 
glance at her sister only to discover that now she 
was looking out of the window. 

“ The Sheldons! Well, I heard you were coming 
about this time. I thought there were more of you, 

i8 


THE SONG OF THE TRAIN 


though.” The woman again smiled at her so 
pleasantly that Connie’s unconquerable friendliness 
responded at once. 

“ Oh, there are, and right up to the last day we 
expected all to come together, but then it was de- 
cided that EfRe, our housekeeper, and Rex, my 
dog, should stay behind and get things ready for 
the people who are going to rent the house. That 
is I don’t mean Rex is going to get the house 
ready,” Connie explained breathlessly. “ And 
then Anne and Ellis, they’re my oldest sister and 
brother, you know, at least you don’t know, but 
they are, went on ahead to make things comfort- 
able for Father. Daddy hasn’t been very well, 

and ” She did not finish her sentence, and her 

eyes sought her father who was rubbing his fore- 
head wearily. 

“ He does look rather tired out, doesn’t he? ” said 
the new friend sympathetically, “ but you wait till 
he’s had a chance to breathe Brookfield air for 
a while; he’ll be skipping around like a three-year- 
old before you know it.” Her manner was so kind 
and reassuring that Connie could have hugged her. 
“ I’ve been away for a few days,” she added, ‘‘ but 
I dare say Emeline knows a good deal about your 
family. If she doesn’t it’s because the neighbors 
haven’t done their duty by her.” Her twinkling 
eyes made this seem the best joke in the world. 

19 


THE SHELDON SIX 

** Perhaps the neighbors don’t know it. Anne’s 
very quiet. But they could have heard Ellis a mile 
olf,” answered Connie, and then, emboldened by 
their growing intimacy, added, “ Is Emeline your 
little girl? ” 

“ She is and she isn’t,” was the woman’s perplex- 
ing response. She was drawing up the strings of 
her bag, and searching for numerous small pack- 
ages concealed around her. Then her face crinkled 
into an engaging smile. “ I’m Miss Eunice Dean,” 
she said. “We live at Brookfield; not far from 
your house. Come and see us soon and make Erne- 
line’s acquaintance.” 

“ Thank you,” replied Connie faintly. She was 
wondering what Rose would say if she should tell 
her that already she had an invitation to call on 
someone. She almost wished she did not feel so 
much interest in the affairs of others. Miss Dean ! 
Then she couldn’t be Emeline’s mother. Perhaps 
she was her aunt. It would be nice to know 
whether Emeline was about twelve. She wanted 
to ask, but instead put her hand on her lips and sat 
primly silent, trying to think of something else. 
Presently she realized that the train was going more 
slowly, that Susan was coming toward her, and that 
she must be ready to get off. 

“ I’m hungry as a bear, and my tongue aches 
’cause I’ve kept it so still.” Susan was leaning on 
20 


THE SONG OF THE TRAIN 


the arm of the seat and regarding Miss Dean with 
curious eyes. “ Is he going to get off here, too? ” 
she added in a loud whisper. 

“Sh! She isn’t a man,” Connie answered 
softly, thanking her lucky stars that her seatmate 
had just stooped to the floor to recapture a parcel 
which had slipped from her grasp. “ And you 
needn’t worry about being hungry. You know 
what’s going to happen when we get on the next 
train, don’t you? Lunch! Um — um!” 

“ Come on,” cried Susan, much cheered by the 
pleasing vision fashioned by these words. “ Hurry ! 
There’s Wose shaking her hand at us.” 

Connie flung a smile at Miss Dean as she was 
pulled along the aisle by the vigorous Susan. The 
next moment they were all on the platform and the 
train was puffing away. 


21 


CHAPTER II 


A LIGHT BOX 

“ Oh, such a blue sky! Such green trees! ” ex- 
ulted Connie, setting her suit-case on the platform, 
and gazing with delighted eyes. It was early after- 
noon, and the sunshine was warm, and the air full 
of the sweetness of spring. 

“ Hardly a house in sight,” murmured Rose in 
spite of herself, and then hoped that her father had 
not heard. “ Where’s the Brookfield train? I 
thought it would be here waiting for us.” 

“ So it oughter,” said a man who had lounged 
out from the small building that served as a station. 
“ Good-afternoon, Miss Eunice. I guess you’ve 
got quite a wait this time. Somethin’s happened 
to the old girl — sprained her ankil or somethin’,” 
he laughed as if it were a joke to sprain one’s ankle, 
and Connie looked at him indignantly. “ They’ve 
jest ’phoned over to say they’ll git her here as soon 
as they can.” 

“ But where’s the train? ” demanded Susan, 
marching up to look the man squarely in the eye. 

22 


A LIGHT BOX 


“ Rose said I could have my lunch on that train, 
and I’m starved. Does it have to wait for that 
girl’s ankle to get well? ” 

“ Sure it does. The old girl has to haul the train 
over here and then haul you back.” He was look- 
ing at her without a smile. 

“With a sprained ankle!” gasped Connie, and 
then blushed when the man laughed. 

“ He means the engine is broken,” Rose ex- 
plained with a superior air, but even she turned to 
her father for confirmation. 

“ That’s it, I’m afraid,” Mr. Sheldon answered 
soberly. The cheerful courage which had always 
supported his children was not easily summoned 
now, and his face looked drawn and white. “ Any- 
way, we can sit down somewhere and you children 
can have your lunch,” he ended wearily. 

“ Goody ! It’ll be like a picnic.” Connie was 
overjoyed. Then, her eye falling on her seatmate 
who had drawn the station-master to one side and 
was questioning him, “ Couldn’t we ask her to lunch 
with us? There’ll be plenty, and she’s the only 
other person to get off here. I — I know her 
name.” 

“ Now, Con, you shan’t be dragging us into 
knowing everyone around here,” began Rose, but 
got no farther, for the woman her sister had wanted 
to invite was coming toward them. 

23 


THE SHELDON SIX 

“ Mr. Sheldon, I’m Miss Eunice Dean,” she said, 
offering her hand in manly fashion. “ I got 
acquainted with your daughter on the train, and 
she said you were not feeling well. Now, if you are 
able to take a five minutes’ walk with me I can 
promise you a good cup of tea and something to 
eat. If there was any way I could bring it to you 
and have it really good I’d be glad to. I’m sorry” 
— she turned directly to Rose — “ it’s too bad I 
can’t take you all, but I’m afraid my friends might 
not be ready for quite so many. I’m sure I can 
bring something back to you, though.” 

‘‘ Thank you, don’t trouble; we have our lunch,” 
Rose answered with a coolly indifferent air. 

“ Oh, Daddy, do go,” Connie put in quickly, 
longing to shake her sister for her lack of cordiality. 
“ I’m sure the tea will do you good. We’ll eat our 
lunch while you’re gone and be all ready for — for 
the ‘ old girl ’ when she does come.” Her bubbling 
laugh made her father’s face brighten in spite of his 
pain. 

“ Thank you very much. Miss Dean. I shall be 
glad to go,” he said gratefully. “ Rose is com- 
mander of this expedition, so I’m not needed. You 
can manage without me, can’t you. Posy? ” 

“Yes, of course,” Rose answered hastily, as if her 
conscience were prompting her to make up for her 
indifference of the moment before. “ And do try 
24 


A LIGHT BOX 


to drop that headache somewhere on the way, 
Daddy. Anne and Ellis will say I haven’t taken 
good care of you.” 

“And she has, hasn’t she, dear-r-rest Daddy? ” 
Susan, who, whenever she could remember it, was 
making heroic efforts to say the letter “ r ” as it 
should be said, rolled it proudly this time. “ And 
she’s taken nawful good care of the lunch-box. 
I’m so hungry I could eat that lunch if ’twas chips.” 

“ Get busy then,” laughed Miss Eunice Dean. 
“ There’s a nice place to picnic under those trees if 
you’re not too citified to climb a stone wall.” 

Rose, having a moment before fixed on that very 
spot as the best one possible for a lunch place, now 
looked around for another one. She could not have 
told why she felt like disagreeing with this woman, 
who so evidently wanted to be kind to them, but as 
she watched her father and Miss Dean walk off to- 
gether, she made up her mind that she did not like 
persons who got acquainted so quickly and tried to 
manage other folks’ affairs. 

“ Let’s go ” she began, but Susan was al- 

ready proving her ability to climb a stone wall, and 
Connie and Jim were not far behind her. 

“ Get the lunch-box, Jimsey,” Rose called, as she, 
too, started toward the wall. “ I left it right there 
with the suit-cases and things.” 

“ It’s a wonder you’d let anyone touch it,” 

25 


THE SHELDON SIX 


grumbled Jim, turning back. “ Where’d you put 
it? I don’t see any lunch-box.” 

“ Well, it’s there,” Rose said impatiently. 
“ Look under Daddy’s coat.” 

“ What did you cover it up for? Did you think 
one of us would run away with it? ” Jim brought 
to light a package and made a wild dash for the 
wall, arriving at the picnic spot just as Susan was 
spreading a diminutive handkerchief on her lap. 
“ That’s for my cr-r-rumbs,” she remarked happily. 
“ After I’ve eaten every bit I can I’m going to call 
the birds.” 

“ Huh! This box is pretty light. I don’t believe 
there’ll be anything left for birds.” Jim had given 
the package to Rose and was watching her with 
doubting eyes while she untied the string. 

“ I thought it was heavy enough while I was lug- 
ging it,” Rose said quickly, and instinctively lifted 
the box. “ Why — why ” she stammered, look- 

ing half -accusingly at Jim, as if by some magic he 
had managed to change the weight, “ it does seem 
lighter, but the paper’s the same — and the string 
was like this.” Her eyes held a wild astonishment ; 
underneath everything she felt a cold certainty that 
things had gone wrong with her, but she refused to 
believe that fate could play her so shabby a trick. 

It just seems lighter, I suppose, because I was 
carrying that heavy suit-case before,” she mur- 
26 


A LIGHT BOX 


mured with an attempt at cheerfulness as she 
twitched at the knot. 

“ Cut it,” advised Jimsey, offering his knife, but 
Rose still tugged at the string with the air of one 
who would postpone a disagreeable discovery as 
long as possible. 

I’m starving hungwy,” remarked Susan, break- 
ing a silence which had lasted at least a moment. 
So far she had not dreamed there was a chance that 
her hunger might not soon be satisfied, but as the 
string finally came untied, and Rose, with fear in 
her heart, unfolded the paper, sudden realization 
came to Susan. 

“ Why — why — ^why,” she began with a whimper 
in her voice, “ our box was a wed one. I saw Effie 
putting sandwiches and cakes and ” 

“And this is a white box, isn’t it?” interrupted 
Rose with that stony coolness which sometimes 
seized her when she was at the point of despair and 
was bound others should not know it. “ I guess 
you’ll have to go without a lunch till you get to 
Brookfield. Someone else has ours.” She set the 
box down, and got up from the sun-warmed grass, 
stretching her arms and yawning. “ Too bad, 
Susan, but you play ’round with Jimsey and you’ll 
forget how hungry you are.” 

If Anne had been there she would have guessed 
what distress and anger at herself Rose’s indifferent 
27 


THE SHELDON SIX 


manner covered. But to the younger children it 
only added to the misfortune to have her not even 
say she was sorry. 

Susan, who almost never cried for bumps and 
bruises, found this too much to bear and burst into 
tears of anguish. “ You — you wouldn’t even 1-let 
me hold it and 1-look at it,” she sobbed, “ and now 
you’ve gone and lost it — yourself. And I can’t for- 
get how hungwy I am.” 

“ Let’s open it,” Connie said hopefully. “ Per- 
haps there’s something we can eat.” She took the 
cover from the box and lifting a layer of tissue 
paper disclosed two small gingham dresses and a lit- 
tle blue coat. 

“Oh, deah!” wailed Susan, “I can’t eat 
clothes ! ” Then, as no one paid any attention to 
her, she stopped to listen to Connie who was reading 
aloud a sale-slip. 

“ ‘ Sold to Mrs. W. L. Brown — Redmoor.’ ” 
Connie deciphered it slowly. “ I s’pose that’s the 
woman you sat with.” 

“ Seems likely,” agreed Rose with a quick 
memory of a large, hot person who had grudgingly 
made room for her. She remembered hoping that 
she should never have to see that woman again. 
“ She had a lot of bundles. But I carried the lunch 
package on my lap every minute — ^no, I didn’t 
either — when I tried to get out the tickets it slid 
28 


A LIGHT BOX 


and I put it on the floor for a second. I must have 
picked up one of hers.” 

“ Daddy’ll feel awful bad ’cause he had lunch and 
we didn’t,” Susan remarked in her saddest tones. 
“ And I sh’d think, Rose Sheldon, that Anne 
and Ellis will say you haven’t tooken good care of 
us.” 

Jimsey scowled at his younger sister. “ Aw, be 
a sport, Susan,” he said earnestly. “ I’m not going 
to tell Daddy we lost our lunch. Nor Anne nor 
Ellis. I bet Connie won’t either.” 

“ Of course not,” Connie agreed. “ Rose had a 
lot to do, and anyone might make a mistake like 
that.” 

Rose’s face softened and she swallowed painfully. 
‘‘ You two are bricks,” she got out at last, her throat 
feeling tight and full. “ I — I’m frightfully sorry 
it happened, but I do think it will be best not to tell 
Daddy, because it will make him unhappy. I 
wasn’t going to ask you not to tell, though.” 

“ I — I’m a br-r-rick, too,” Susan said hastily. 
“ I shan’t tell ’less he says, ‘ Susan, did you have a 
nice lunch? ’ Right out like that. Then I’d have 
to, wouldn’t I ? ” 

‘‘ We’ll talk so fast he won’t have a chance to ask 
anything,” Connie put in before Rose could an- 
swer. “ Say, Jimsey, I see something shiny in the 
wall over there. I’ll beat you to it.” 

29 


THE SHELDON SIX 

‘‘ Me, too! Me, too! ” shouted Susan, forgetting 
she was hungry. “ What do you s’pose it is? ” 

Let’s play we’re in — in Alaska hunting for 
gold, and we haven’t even — even a match left, and 
we’re — ^v’^hat you call ’em — mining suspects, and 

we see a gleam in the distant rocks ” Jim was 

off swiftly. 

“ Not ‘ suspects ’ — experts,” panted Connie after 
him. “And we can hear wolves baying, and only 
just an hour ago we’ve seen the track of Indians. 
Come on, Susan; don’t let me beat you.” 

Rose watched them for a while, then mechanically 
put the paper on the box and tied it with exceeding 
care. She almost wished the children wouldn’t be 
such angels about it all. It only made her feel 
more guilty. Perhaps it served her right for feeling 
so conceited over the way she had managed this 
journey. She tried to think of something else, but 
her tired mind clung desperately to the one subject. 
Losing the lunch was about the most awful mistake 
she could have made. Children were always twice 
as hungry when they were on a journey. What if 
the train shouldn’t be mended for hours! 

Here was this box belonging to someone else. 
She must do something about this. She got up and 
went hastily back to the little station to explain her 
mistake to the man in charge. 

“You don’t tell me you’ve took Mrs. W. L. 
30 


A LIGHT BOX 


Brown’s box,” he said, looking as serious as his 
twinkling eyes would permit. “Jingo! I don’t 
hanker to be in W. L.’s shoes when she finds out 
she ain’t got it. There’ll be some hyperin’ for him. 
An’ you want I should take charge of it? ” .He 
waggled his head with slow decision. “Nope! 
Nothin’ doin’ in that line. I’ve had dealin’s with 
her before, and I refuse to take the responsibility of 
that box. You send it by passel post from Brook- 
field. Or, I’ll tell you,” he was smiling now and 
apparently very much pleased with himself, “ you 
kin drive over from your place. ’Tain’t so awful 
far, and it’ll give you a nice chance to git acquainted 
with the Browns.” 

For a moment Rose was speechless. To get 
acquainted with these people was the last thing she 
wanted, but she could not tell him so. She won- 
dered if it would do any good to coax him. Sud- 
denly she loiew that to take that box to Brookfield 
would be unendurable, and, before the man had time 
to object, she had thrust the box into his hands and 
run away. “ You’ve just got to take it,” she called 
back without stopping. “ I’m not going to carry 
it home.” 

She fully expected that he would come after her 
with the box and that she should be obliged to take 
charge of it, but, to her surprise, when she dared 
to look back, she saw him still standing lazily in the 

31 


THE SHELDON SIX 


doorway of the little station, with apparently no 
idea of trying to make her change her mind. 

“ That was cheeky of me, and he probably doesn’t 
like me very well,” she said to herself, “ but I can’t 
help it. There are times when you have to be firm 
with people.” 

She was climbing the wall by this time and she 
could see the children, not playing now, but stand- 
ing in a group and evidently looking at something. 
A moment later Susan’s voice, full of mystery and 
expectation, reached her ear. 

“ Oh, Wose,” she called, “ look at those two 
chilluns. What do you suppose they’ve got? ” 


32 


CHAPTER III 

TWINS TO THE EESCUE 

Rosens gaze, following her sister’s pointing finger, 
fell upon two sturdy little figures approaching from 
the direction in which Father and Miss Dean had 
gone. They were making a peculiar progress, for 
first the girl would run a few steps ahead, and then 
the boy, in his eagerness to overtake her, would, in 
his turn, be in advance. 

“Goody! Goody! They’re bwinging us a 
pwesent!” exclaimed Susan with a joyous faith 
that something for her benefit was about to happen. 
By this time it was plain that the boy carried a 
pitcher, and the girl a large plate covered with a 
napkin. 

“ How can you tell it’s for us? ” questioned Jim; 
“ anyway, I bet they’ll spill whatever they’ve got.” 
He was afraid to be too sure that something to eat 
was arriving, but he watched with a curiosity not 
less eager than Susan’s. 

When the approaching children had almost 
33 


THE SHELDON SIX 


reached the Sheldons a quick run brought the boy 
a few steps ahead of the girl. 

“ M-m-m-Ma,” he began, but before he could 
get any farther the girl, who seemed exactly the 
same size, ran in front of him and pushed him back 
with a resolute elbow. 

“ Now, Billy Becker, you thtop. You know Ma 
thaid ” 

But by this time it was the boy who was in the 
foreground. “ Ma-m-m-Ma s-sent you s-some 
d-d-d 

“ Ma thent you thome doughnutth and milk,” the 
girl finished, almost treading on Connie’s toes in 
her effort to step in front of her brother. “ Your 
Pa ith at our houth.” 

“D-D-Dilly!” began the boy, scowling and 
growing very red. It looked so much as if he 
might be going to dash the pitcher to the ground 
that Susan clasped her hands and uttered an in- 
voluntary, “ Oh! ” Then, to their surprise, Billy’s 
face cleared, and he sang in a high sweet voice, evi- 
dently to a tune of his own making, ‘‘ I’ll fix you for 
that, Dilly Becker.” 

“ Oh, please. Daffy-down Dilly,” said Susan, 
starting forward impulsively ; “ please, before he 
fixes you, let me take the doughnuts. You might 
spill them, you know.” 

‘‘ My name’th Ardelia,” answered the girl sulk- 
34 


TWINS TO THE RESCUE 


ily, as if she thought Susan was poking fun at her. 
Then her black eyes snapped, and she looked at 
her brother with an impish grin. “ There’th 
roundth and twithtth, and Ma hopeth you haven’t 
et too much to want ’em.” 

Billy gave her an anguished glance. He had 
forgotten this part of his mother’s message, and 
now Dilly had said it all. Dumbly he gave the 
pitcher and two mugs into Rose’s keeping and 
walked away from the group, unfortunately not so 
far that he failed to hear the words the triumphant 
Dilly flung after him. 

“ You mutht pleathe excuthe Billy. Ma wath 
thorry not to thend four mugth. Ma told him to 
thay tho.” 

Billy faced around quickly, and again the color 
mounted in fiery waves to the roots of his red hair. 
Then he turned his back on his sister and walked 
away a little farther, manfully sticking both hands 
in his pockets. 

Dilly, in the meantime, had uncovered the crisp, 
golden-brown doughnuts, and was passing them 
from one to another with a very good imitation of 
her mother’s best manner. 

“ Do have one,” she said to Connie. “ I hope 
you haven’t had tho much lunch that you can’t take 
a little more.” 

“ We haven’t ” began Susan. Ouch, Jim- 

35 


THE SHELDON SIX 


sey, that hurts.” She put her hand on her arm that 
had been gently but firmly nipped by her brother. 
“ I — I was just going to ” 

Rose interrupted. “ It was very good of you to 
bring us these lovely doughnuts.” She was pour- 
ing milk as she spoke, and she gave the mug first to 
Susan, who subsided somewhat sulkily. Rose was 
smiling and looking her prettiest, and even the in- 
jured Billy was drawn back into the group in spite 
of himself. “ Can you keep a secret? ” she went on, 
smiling directly at him, ‘‘you and — and Dilly I 
mean? ” 

Billy dug his bare toes into the grass and nodded 
a bashful assent. 

“ Yeth, of courth. What ith it? ” demanded his 
sister, whose black hair and dark skin were such a 
contrast to her brother’s fairness. 

“ Well, then,” proceeded Rose, “ the truth is that 
I was careless and lost our lunch, and if you hadn’t 
brought these delicious things we shouldn’t have had 
a bite to eat.” 

“ But why do you keep it a secret? ” sang Billy 
in his fresh little voice, for once getting ahead of his 
sister. 

“ Because we don’t want Daddy to know. We 
thought it would worry him,” explained Connie. 

“ He thaid you had a nithe lunch, but that hith 
children could alwayth make room for thuch dough- 
36 


TWINS TO THE RESCUE 


nutth and thuch milk,” observed Dilly with pride. 
“ But I won’t let Billy tell. Of courth you 
wouldn’t want your Pa to know you’d been tho 
careleth.” Dilly’s manner was patronizing, and 
Rose laughed in spite of herself. 

“ We were afraid it would trouble him if he found 
out we had nothing to eat,” she said quickly, “ and 
the others were dandy about not telling. Daddy 
knows anyway that I’m always careless if I have the 
chance to be.” 

“A great grown-up girl like you careleth? ” de- 
manded Dilly, her dark eyes very big. “ I didn’t 
know grown-upth ever thaid they were anything 
bad.” To her seven years. Rose seemed really old. 
“ I gueth if Billy did thumthing like that the firtht 
thing I’d do would be to tell. You’re a funny 
family.” She went off into a peal of ringing laugh- 
ter, and the Sheldons, who had been politely trying 
to conceal their own amusement, joined her heartily. 

“ Oh — oh! ” gurgled Jimsey, rolling on the grass 
in pure gratitude for this chance to laugh. “We 
are a funny family, aren’t we. Rose? I never 
knew before how — how ridiculous we are.” 

“ Get up,” answered Rose, gently poking him 
with the toe of her shoe. “ That’s no way to be- 
have when you have callers.” 

“ Why don’t you do it harder? ” asked Dilly. 
“ I would if ’twath Billy.” 

37 


THE SHELDON SIX 


“ You b-b-bet she w- would/’ Billy put in spirit- 
edly. “ There goes the school-b-b-bell.” And 
then again he lifted his voice in song, “ Give me the 
pitcher and Dilly the plate. We’ve got to run or 
we’ll be late.” 

“ Why-why-why,” began Susan, stammering in 
her eagerness. “ That was potry. Did you hear, 
Connie? He sang potry.” 

‘‘ That’th eathy for him,” his sister said proudly. 
“ He can do that motht any time, can’t you, 
Billy? ” 

Billy nodded, and concealed his blushes by col- 
lecting the pitcher and mugs. Then, poised for 
flight, he chanted, “ Good-bye, I’m glad I came 
to-day. The next time I will longer stay.” In 
another breath he was off like an arrow, with the 
mugs clinking perilously against the pitcher. 

“ It ithn’t polite to thay you’ll thtay longer,” 
shrieked Dilly after him. With one motion she 
gathered in the plate and napkin. My good- 
neth, he’ll get home flrtht,” she moaned. “And I 
jutht have to tell Ma all about you.” She was off, 
running swiftly, and as her bobbing black head 
disappeared down the hill it looked as though she 
were gaining. 

“ I hope he gets there in time to sing a little song 
to his mother,” observed Jim, who had a fellow 
feeling for Billy. 


38 


TWINS TO THE RESCUE 


“ So do I,” agreed Connie. “ Oh, I can see 
Daddy way in the distance. Let’s race.” 

When they came back. Rose, who had not gone 
with the others, noticed that Susan’s hand was fast 
in Miss Dean’s, and that Connie was close to her 
on the other side. 

“Well, how do you like the Becker twins?” 
questioned Miss Dean as they came within hearing 
distance. 

“Think of it! Twins!” repeated Connie. 
“And they don’t look the least bit alike.” 

“ They are one of our prize exhibits,” Miss Dean 
said with a comfortable chuckle. “What they 
can’t think of to do when they’re in the mood for 
mischief isn’t worth mentioning. And between 
times Dilly tries to make Billy a better boy.” 

“ I should think she did,” murmured Jim. “ If 
I had a sister like that I’d — I’d ” 

“ Would you fix her — the way Billy said ? ” 

demanded Susan, who had been wondering what 
this mysterious method implied. 

“ Try me and see,” answered Jim, attempting a 
threatening glare, which did not suit his pleasant 
fairness and only made Susan giggle. Whereupon 
Jim grinned sheepishly and walked off to patrol 
the wall, from which, a while later, a joyous whoop 
came back to them. “ She’s coming,” he shouted; 
“ the ‘ old girl’s ’ coming.” 

39 


THE SHELDON SIX 

“ Huh! I should call it a baby tr-r-rain ^stead 
of an old girl one/’ said Susan, as she looked with 
disdain at the engine with its one car attached. 
“ I don’t think that’s stwong enough to carry all of 
us Sheldons.” 

“ What do you think we are — a caravan? ” 
Jimsey enjoyed puzzling his younger sister with 
hard words. “ Don’t you see that it’s a sitting-car 
with a baggage-car on the end? Come on, let’s 
watch ’em put the trunks in.” 

Rose, a little afraid that the station-master would 
insist upon her taking the box, kept out of his 
neighborhood and as close to her father as she could. 
Except for an occasional quick glance she would 
not even look in his direction for fear that she might 
see him approaching, but to her surprise and relief 
he busied himself with the trunks and did not come 
near her. 

Later, sitting beside her father, and wholly un- 
responsive to Miss Dean’s attempt to point out the 
beauties of the landscape. Rose lost the pleasanter 
mood of a while before. It had been such a relief 
then to think that the children need not go hungry 
through her mistake that she had forgotten her 
own troubles for the moment; now it all came back 
to her, and as the little engine puffed up-hill, clat- 
tered around curves, and broke the country still- 
ness with its shrill whistle she grew more and more 
40 


TWINS TO THE RESCUE 

unhappy. She hated the country, she did not want 
to know these people, she knew she was going to 
have a dreadful summer, she — suddenly a memory 
of the twins flashed into her mind, and she smiled 
in spite of herself. 

Her father, who had been watching her, looked 
relieved. “ It’s not going to be so bad, after all, 
is it, Posy? ” he asked anxiously. 

“ No-o.” Rose, with a sigh as unconscious as 
her smile, came back to a contemplation of her 
surroundings. The children were shouting with 
laughter over something Miss Dean was telling 
them, and pointing out to each other the scattered 
houses, the roomy barns, the overshadowing hills 
with a joy which to Rose seemed cruel. Then, 
suddenly aware that her father was gazing at her 
questioningly, she tried to smile and look in- 
terested too. “ We seem to be going up and up, 
don’t we. Daddy? I’ll be glad when we get there, 
won’t you? ” 

“ Yes, but I feel much better than I did this 
morning and I love these hills. That country din- 
ner, and the walk with Miss Dean, who is a very in- 
teresting woman, did me good.” 

‘‘ Interesting? ” Rose repeated unbelievingly. 

Her father laughed. “ Yes, just that,” he af- 
firmed. “ If you are worth as much as I think 
you are you’ll find out some day how much she 

41 


THE SHELDON SIX 


means to her neighbors. Why she ” but just 

then Susan and Jim came flying to Daddy with a 
question to be answered, and Rose settled back into 
her own thoughts again. 

It was curious, she decided, that Miss Dean 
should have talked about herself and should have 
told Father how much she meant to her neighbors. 
She must have done so, of course, or else how 
should he know? Rose was quite sure she couldn’t 
like a woman who would do that, and she wished the 
children wouldn’t be so friendly with her. Prob- 
ably between them they had told her the family 
history by this time. 

It was late afternoon when an outburst of joy 
from the children greeted Miss Dean’s announce- 
ment that Brookfield was very near, and after that 
things happened in a hurry. As the train stopped 
before the small station there was Anne, flushed 
^and smiling, and actually dancing a little in her 
joy, in spite of her sixteen years. 

“ Daddy, darling, it seems a year that I’ve been 
away from you,” she said happily. “And there’s 
Ellis with our carriage — it’s big even if it isn’t 
beautiful — and ” 

“Anne, I want you to meet Miss Dean, one of 
our neighbors, who has been away since your ar- 
rival. Miss Dean, this is Anne, and she is the 
mainspring of the family.” Father had his arm 

42 


TWINS TO THE RESCUE 

around his eldest daughter and was drawing her 
forward. 

“ You know,” added Connie, squeezing Miss 
Dean’s hand, “ I told you about our family car, and 
that Anne is the steering-gear.” 

Rose, standing a little apart from the others, 
frowned over this. She might have known that 
Connie would tell everything she could; and things 
like that sounded so foolish when they were re- 
peated. She turned her back on her family and 
walked toward Ellis, who was holding the horse 
and waiting impatiently. Near the carriage was 
an automobile which she supposed must belong to 
Miss Dean. She wished theirs was a car instead 
of a funny-looking old carriage. 

“ Miss Dean asked some of us to go with her,” 
said Jimsey, catching up, “ but Daddy thought we 
all ought to be together when we see Anne’s house 
for the first time.” 

‘‘Aren’t you ever coming? ” shouted Ellis. 
“ Rose, you hold Mr. Bonaparte, please, while I 
help with the bags. He won’t mind the train if 
you’ll only talk lovingly to him.” 

Rose, feeling a little dismayed by the sudden, 
penetrating glance Mr. Bonaparte bestowed upon 
her, held him, nevertheless, and rubbed his weather- 
beaten nose until the family and the bags were 
tucked into the capacious carriage. Then she 
43 


THE SHELDON SIX 


mounted into the front seat beside Ellis, and lis- 
tened without a word to a tale of what had been 
done in the three days he and Anne had been here. 

“ It’s pretty country, don’t you think? ” he broke 
off suddenly. “All those trees and the mountain 
over there. Some day we’ll climb it.” 

Rose assented listlessl}^ To her the stillness, 
and the green stretches of houseless land were ap- 
palling. It made her feel, as noise never did, that 
she wanted to put her hands over her ears and shut 
her eyes and run somewhere — to any place where 
she could be in the midst of things again. 

“Aren’t there — aren’t there any houses? ” she 
asked appealingly. 

“ Why, surely. There’s a village. Wait till we 
get over this hill we’re coming to and you’ll see it.” 
Ellis flapped the reins and approached the hill in 
fine style, but Mr. Bonaparte had other plans; at 
the first indication of a rise in the ground he stopped 
as if he were going to sit down, and dejectedly 
dropped his head. 

“ He thinks there are too many of us,” said 
Connie, who was very tender-hearted in regard 
to animals. ‘‘ I’ll get out and walk up the 
hill.” 

“ You take the reins. Rose, and I’ll walk, too.” 
Ellis scrambled out over the bags that surrounded 
his feet and went to the horse’s head. “ Now look 
44 


TWINS TO THE RESCUE 


here, there are two of the heavy-weights out, and 
you can just go on/’ 

Mr. Bonaparte shook himself and braced his feet 
with a mild and melancholy air. Then he glanced 
back over his shoulder as if trying to get a view of 
the carriage. 

“ I believe the weird old thing is trying to count 
you/’ frowned Ellis, who would have preferred a 
more stylish steed. 

“ I’ll get out,” offered Jimsey, ‘‘ and you come 
too, Susan. Then we’ll walk up the hill, and he’ll 
see we’re trying to do the fair thing by him.” 

This was done, but the melancholy Mr. Bona- 
parte seemed to have no sense of fairness and only 
turned his head once more toward the carriage. 

“ Why, I know what he wants. How stupid of 
me not to think of it before,” said Anne, jumping 
out hastily. “ Ezra told me what Aunt Serena 
used to do when the horse acted like this, and I came 
prepared.” She took a lump of sugar out of her 
pocket and, with some inward shrinking, held it on 
the palm of her hand under Mr. Bonaparte’s broad 
nose. In the midst of his crunching she let him 
sniff at a second lump, and then she began to walk 
slowly, holding the sugar just out of his reach. 
With the air of one who has gained his point, Mr. 
Bonaparte followed step by step up the hill. 

“ Take off your hat. Nan, and maybe he’ll think 
45 


THE SHELDON SIX 

you’re a carrot and go faster,” said Ellis with a 
chuckle. 

“ Mean thing! I don’t care if my hair is red! ” 
laughed Anne, too pleased over her little triumph 
to mind anything. “ I wonder if carrots wouldn’t 
do, though. Sugar is so expensive. There ! Take 
it, you greedy thing,” she ended, as they reached 
the top of the hill. “ Now pile in and in about ten 
minutes we’ll be home.” 

This last cheerful word made Rose fro^vn again. 
It would never be home to her, she told herself, and 
she wished Anne wouldn’t be so exasperatingly de- 
lighted over it all. That got on her nerves and 
made it harder for her to bear. And then by some 
chance she turned to look at her father, and the 
sight of him, hat off, curly hair ruffled by the breeze, 
his contented eyes taking in the landscape, pricked 
her with shame. Of course it did not matter how 
unhappy she might be, she thought dully, if only 
Daddy could get well again. If was up to them to 
manage the family car together as Anne had said. 
Rose wished that it were a real car instead of an 
imaginary one, and that she might drive it. She 
wondered if Daddy would ever have enough money 
so that they could buy 

“ Come back,” said Ellis, nudging her with his 
elbow as they struck level ground once more. 
“ Now that we’re down that hill I shall dare to talk 
46 


TWINS TO THE RESCUE 


again. I’m always so afraid Mr. Bonaparte will 
sit down. He looks as if he would.” 

“ ‘Always so afraid/ ” repeated Rose with a 
laugh. “ I should think you and Anne had been 
here years by the way you talk. I can fancy Anne 
going about the country with a string of carrots 
about her neck to get this animal up the hills.” 

Mr. Bonaparte twitched an ear in her direction 
as if he were thoughtfully considering her remark. 

“ He doesn’t like to be called ‘ this animal,’ ” 
Connie observed with sympathy. “ He wants to 
belong to the family.” 

“We might call him Uncle Bony,” suggested 
Jim. 

“Huh! I won’t have a horse for my uncle,” 
Susan retorted scornfully, and then, as the car- 
riage made a sudden turn she squealed with delight. 
“ Why — ^why, it’s just like my Noah’s ark I used to 
have. White houses — green blinds — trees 1 ” 

“ This,” said Ellis with an air, “ this is the main 
avenue of Brookfield. Just ahead of us, ladies and 
gentlemen, you will see the square with its beauti- 
ful old trees, and that imposing building on the 
right is the post-office.” 

“And now we go down this tree-shaded avenue,” 
went on Anne, taking up the role of showman, 
“ with its many houses ” 

“ Please ring off,” interrupted Rose. “ Many 
47 


THE SHELDON SIX 


houses ! I’ve counted four since we passed the post- 
office. Oh, is this — is this Aunt Serena’s house? ” 

“ No, it’s Anne’s, Pile out,” answered Ellis, as 
Mr. Bonaparte stopped without waiting to be told. 

“We never can get in that — all at the same time,” 
Rose murmured blankly as she stepped from the 
carriage. 

“ Yes, we can,” Anne assured her. “ Come on in 
and look at it. There’s a part you can’t see from 
the front.” 

Father was going up the walk smiling at Susan 
and Jim and Connie, who were chattering like 
sparrows. Rose followed laggingly, and after her 
came Ellis with all the bags he could carry. 

“ I should say you had enough dunnage,” he 
grumbled, as he dropped his burden in the hall. 
“ Bags and more bags ! Bundles and boxes ! ” 

At the last word Rose turned suddenly. “ What 

box ” she began, and then her glance fell on a 

square paper-covered package which might have 
held luncheon for a starving family, but, to her own 
knowledge, had not served that purpose. “ Why — 
why, who put that box on the train? ” she demanded 
so angrily that the others attended to her at once. 

“ I did,” Jimsey responded in all innocence. 
“ The station-man said it would be easier for those 
folks to get it from here than from the Junction, 
and he asked me to — ^to take charge of it.” His 
48 


TWINS TO THE RESCUE 

voice faltered a little at the end, for Rose was 
frowning fiercely at him. 

“ You knew I didn’t want to bring it here,” she 
began, forgetting that no one had been present at 
her interview with the station-man. “ Why didn’t 
you ask me instead of taking it when he told you? 
Now we shall have to get acquainted with more 
people. And Connie talked with Miss Dean, and — 
and those twins came ” 

“ It was a very good thing I did talk with Miss 
Dean, and you know it.” In her earnestness 
Connie went close to her sister and shook a plump 
finger at her. Her dark eyes, usually so soft, 
blazed with indignation, but she kept her voice very 
quiet, so that Father, who had gone on with Anne, 
should not hear. “ I don’t care if you are ’most 
three years older, I think you’re silly ’bout not want- 
ing to know people. And it’s mean to blame Jim- 
sey. I don’t see how he could do anything else. 
He was the very first one to say he wouldn’t tell 

about ” she pulled herself up with a gasp of 

dismay. “Anyway, I’ll say right now that I’m 
going to get acquainted with my neighbors, and you 
needn’t try to stop me.” 

“ And I yam, too,” remarked Susan, who was al- 
ways helpful when a disagreement was in progress. 
She ranged herself by Connie and returned Rose’s 
frown with interest. 


49 


THE SHELDON SIX 

“ What^s all this? ” Anne demanded softly, com- 
ing back from the living-room, where she had intro- 
duced her father to the most comfortable chair. 
“ This is a — a — ^well, it’s not a nice way for the 
family to christen my little house.” She was think- 
ing fast as she spoke; it would be easy enough to 
soothe Connie, but to say the convincing thing to 
Rose was difficult. “ Let’s talk quietly so Daddy 
won’t hear,” she went on after a moment. “ The 
rest of us must remember that Rose hates to come 
here, and so it’s harder for her than for us. And 
she’s tried to keep it from Daddy.” 

Anne had struck the right note. In her own 
mind Rose was immediately restored to the pin- 
nacle from which Connie’s plain speaking had 
toppled her, and if only one person realized that 
she was a martyr it made it easier to go on being 
heroic. She put out her hand to Jimsey. “ Sorry, 
Jim. I s’pose you thought that was the right thing 
to do. And for all I care, Con, you may get ac- 
quainted with all the people here and in the sur- 
rounding towns.” Then she turned to Anne and 
Ellis. “ That box has somebody’s child’s dress in 
it,” she said indifferently. “ I shall have to send it 
by parcel post. I — I picked it up instead of our 
lunch-box. The kids can tell you about it.” 

“ Daddy had a real dinner, and we didn’t miss the 
lunch — ^much.” It was like Connie to be sorry 
50 


TWINS TO THE RESCUE 


right away and eager to make amends. ‘‘And it 
was fun to have those queer twins bring us dough- 
nuts and milk. But let’s not stop now to talk about 
it. Aren’t you going to show us the whole house 
right away, Anne? ” 

“ Of course — this minute, if you like. And then 
we’ll have an early supper and go to bed with the 
chickens.” 

“ Where do they sleep? ” questioned Susan, look- 
ing dissatisfied. “ I’d wather have a bed of my 
own.” 

“ You shall,” smiled Anne. “ Let’s go and find 
it,” and she led the way gaily, fervently hoping that 
her little house would seem as friendly and cosy to 
the others as it did to her. 

Some hours later. Rose, lying tired and unre- 
laxed between sheets faintly perfumed, felt the 
solemn country stillness enfold her, and wondered 
if she should ever go to sleep. If she could only 
hear the rattle of a trolley-car, or the squawk of an 
automobile horn, or people going by with talk and 
laughter. She shivered at the lonesomeness of it 
all. “ Huh! I’m a dandy part of the family ma- 
chine,” she said to herself with scorn. “ ‘Acceler- 
ator,’ Anne called me. I’d like to accelerate Daddy 
into getting well so that we could go back to Mel- 
ford.” The ver}^ thought of Melford made her 
draw in her breath with an audible sniff, and Ellis, 

51 


THE SHELDON SIX 

who was just passing her door, came stealthily into 
the room. 

“ Say, Sis, I’ll send that parcel off the first thing 
in the morning. I was afraid you might be worry- 
ing about it,” he began, but Rose’s hand shot out 
and clutched his arm. 

“ Ellis, I don’t see how we’re going to stand it,” 
she said fretfully. “ It’s such a queer, horrid, still 
little place. I shall never get to sleep.” 

“Wait till you’ve worked hard for a day or two. 
I can hardly keep my eyes open,” Ellis answered. 
“ Honestly, it isn’t half bad here,” he went on 
eagerly. “ There’ll be lots of things you and I can 
chum in on, just as we always have.” 

“ Oh, you’re only trying to make me feel pleas- 
ant.” Rose was wearily obstinate. “Anne gives 
me a pain; she’s so cheerful about everything, and 
now if you join in — anyway, you can’t get me to 
believe I shall be anything but wretched.” 

“ Well, if you stick it out on that line, probably 
you won’t. I believe, though, that we’re going to 
have a dandy summer, and I advise you to get on 
the band-wagon.” Ellis’ mouth opened in a yawn 
that his sister could hear but not see. “ Well, so 
long. I shall go by-by here if I’m not careful. 
Now go to sleep, old girl, and get out of the right 
side of the bed in the morning.” 

Rose listened to the soft thud of his slippered 

52 


TWINS TO THE RESCUE 


feet, and felt even more lonely than she had before. 
It had been some comfort to feel that Ellis was 
agreeing with her and being a martyr, too, but if he 
were going to be so changeable as this, there would 
be no one to sympathize with her. 

She turned her back on a silver moon which had 
slipped silently into view, and cuddled her cheek 
into the pillow. Life seemed very hard to her just 
now, and the four months ahead unending. After 
a time, she was sure it was hours, she lost all sense of 
this still Brookfield, and found herself walking in 
Melford and choosing the busiest streets. 


53 


CHAPTER IV 


A CHOICE OF ROOMS 

Sunshine instead of moonlight was filling the 
room when Rose awoke, and for a moment she 
fancied that her wish had been granted, and that 
she was once more surrounded by the noise and ex- 
citement of a large town. Then she realized that 
the tumult was caused by Connie and Susan and 
Jim who were exploring the garden and seemed to 
be trying to capture a roaming hen. Connie’s irre- 
sistible mirth drew her, and she slipped out of bed 
and over to the window where she knelt with her 
chin on her arms. 

The hen was a large brown one, and evidently of 
a determined nature, for she side-stepped Jim, 
evaded the clutching hands of Connie, whose eyes 
were almost shut with laughter, and at this moment 
was headed straight for Susan, who had artfully 
concealed herself around a corner of the henyard 
fence. 

“ Keep out of sight, Susan,” gasped Jimsey, who 

54 


A CHOICE OF ROOMS 


between laughing and running was almost breath- 
less. “ When she gets — ’round the corner — grab 
’er — hold ’er tight.” 

“ Sure I will,” answered Susan, always serenely 
confident of her own ability. Although she could 
not see what was happening, she was giggling, no 
one could help that who heard Connie, but, never- 
theless, her small figure was tense with anticipation 
and purpose. 

Around the corner of the henyard came suddenly, 
half -flying, half-running, a bunch of rampant 
feathers, from which issued hoarse squawkings. It 
was enough to terrify any child not used to it, and 
Susan, with an answering shriek, made a perfectly 
excusable attempt to get out of the way of the 
approaching horror. In the next instant two 
things happened: the small girl caught her foot and 
lost her balance, and the hen, trying to go several 
ways at once, fluttered directly into the path of a 
plump falling body. An ordinary hen would have 
been killed by the blow that followed, but almost 
immediately there was a confusion of muffled 
squawks above which rose Susan’s cry of triumph. 

“ Oh, Jimsey, I’ve made a touchdown. Come 
and see.” 

“ I call that a foul play,” said Ellis, who had come 
out of the house unobserved, and now in two jumps 
was by the side of his small sister. “ Get off that 
55 


THE SHELDON SIX 


poor little hen, you great big girl/’ he commanded. 
With one hand he pulled Susan to her feet and with 
the other captured the fluttering hen. 

“ Too bad, poor Mrs. Biddy,” he soothed, strok- 
ing her rufiied feathers. “ You thought the side of 
a house had hit you, didn’t you? Perhaps it will 
teach you not to leave your perfectly good home 
again.” He tossed her lightly over the fence, and 
once among her own, she began to cackle indig- 
nantly. 

“ She’s telling the others all about her terrible 
adventure,” said Connie, and then joyously, “ Oh, 
she’s Henny-Penny, and when Susan hit her she 
thought the sky was falling.” 

“ Huh! ” muttered Susan. “ I’m not as fat as 
all that.” 

“ Let’s name ’em all,” Connie went on. 

Let’s ” 

“ Breakfast’s pretty nearly on the table,” inter- 
rupted Ellis. “ Nan sent me out to tell you to come 
in and wash your hands.” As he turned toward the 
house he caught a glimpse of Rose who was still 
kneeling by the window. ‘‘ Say, you look like — ^like 
what’s-his-name — oh, I know — Raphael’s cherubs. 
Not both of them — just one, I mean. You’d better 
hustle; we need you. See how noble I am.” 

He waved something at her as he disappeared 
from view, and Rose saw that he was wearing an 
56 


A CHOICE OF BOOMS 


apron; evidently he had been helping Anne get 
breakfast. What had come over Ellis lately? she 
wondered. It was almost too much to have both 
him and Anne making such good examples of them- 
selves. She began to dress in a hurry, and Rose, 
when she tried, could always do things quickly, 
partly because she did not care what confusion she 
left behind her. Ten minutes later she slipped into 
her chair at the breakfast-table with the question, 
‘‘ Where’s Father? ” 

“Anne persuaded him to have his breakfast in 
bed this one morning,” answered Ellis. “ Here, 
Nan; I’ll cook the rest of those pancakes. I rather 
fancy myself as a chef, and it won’t hurt you to sit 
still for a while.” He strode off into the kitchen 
with an alacrity that made Rose look at him with 
amazement. When had Ellis ever been willing to 
do things like this before? 

“After I finish my breakfast Mr. Bonaparte and 
I are going on an errand,” remarked Ellis, coming 
back after a while with a plate of brown pancakes 
and an air of modest pride. “ Mr. B. said that Jim 
and Susan might go with us if they liked.” 

“ Take me, too,” Rose suggested. “ I feel just 
like being lazy this morning.” 

“ Oh, I thought you and Connie and I would get 
the work done and then we could decide about 
rooms,” Anne said quickly. “ Except for Daddy 
57 


THE SHELDON SIX 


I didn’t try to make any settled arrangements. Of 
course he would have the best room anyway.” 

“ Of course,” Rose agreed. She should have to 
help, she supposed, until Effie came, but she hated 
this everlasting dishwashing. “ My goodness, I’ll 
be glad when good old Effie gets here, won’t you? ” 
she remarked fervently. “ I’d like some of her hot 
toast this minute.” 

‘‘ Get down earlier and make it yourself,” shouted 
Ellis, who was only out in the hall, but might almost 
have been in the next county, so loud was his voice. 

“ Sh! El! I hoped Daddy might go to sleep 
again if we were quiet,” warned Anne. 

‘‘ Oh, sure; I forgot,” answered her brother, pok- 
ing his head into the room, and coming down to a 
whisper in his penitence. “ It’s such a great old 
day I feel like shouting. I bet this place is going 
to put Father in shape in no time; did you notice 
his face when he stood out on the porch after supper 
last night? ” 

“ I should say I did,” Anne responded happily. 

I feel it in my bones that it’s going to make him 
well soon.” 

Rose, listening, had a curious feeling of being left 
out. When had Anne and Ellis ever been such 
chums before? In spite of the fact that Anne came 
between them in age. Rose had always considered 
Ellis her particular companion, because they usually 

58 


A CHOICE OF BOOMS 


liked and disliked the same things. Now he and 
Anne seemed to be working together and under- 
standing each other. Rose felt a queer pang of 
jealousy over this idea and finished her breakfast 
in silence. 

“ Come on, Con,’’ she said as Ellis and the two 
children departed for the barn. “ I’ll clear the 
table and put away the dishes afterwards, and you 
and Anne can wash and wipe.” 

‘‘ You always choose the part that doesn’t get 
your hands all squizzled,” murmured Connie, who 
had a disconcerting way of understanding Rose’s 
methods. ‘‘ I’ll wash ’em. Nan. Did Aunt Serena 
have a soap-shaker? I like the sudsy part of it.” 

Anne laughed. ‘‘ I haven’t discovered one yet, 
but we’ll go shopping for it in the village.” 

“ Oh, can you buy things here? I supposed you 
had to go miles away.” Connie was interested at 
once, but Rose, who was scraping and piling dishes, 
heard scarcely a word about the village store where 
one could find almost anything from paper-dolls to 
lawn-mowers. “And what they don’t have they 
order for you,” Anne ended triumphantly. “ It 
really makes you feel not so far away. Rose, when 
you see what they have in that store.” 

“ I haven’t been listening,” Rose said with indif- 
ference. ‘‘ I don’t know what you’re talking 
about.” Having finished the preliminary part of 
59 


THE SHELDON SIX 


her work she took a towel now, and Connie splashily 
speeded up the washing so that she might keep two 
busy. 

“ Ouch! That went into my eye. Don’t splash 
so, Con. And do this plate over; you’ve left some 
egg on it.” Rose pushed a j)late back into the 
dishpan, and Connie’s face flushed. She didn’t 
mind doing things over, but she hated to be ordered. 

“ There’s another shop I haven’t seen yet,” Anne 
went on, jumping hastily into the breach, “ some- 
one told me about it. It’s small, and a woman — 
someone who isn’t very strong, I think they said — 
keeps it. She sells baskets and fancy-work 
and ” 

“ Sounds thrilling,” Rose put in with a sleepy 
yawn. “Dear me! I don’t believe I slept ten 
minutes last night.” She dropped her towel on 
the table and began to put away the dishes. 

“ You see this is really quite a place,” Anne was 
bound not to be diverted from her description of 
the village, “ because a great many people come 
here for the whole summer, and they always buy a 
lot of things, and the stores have to keep up to 
them.” 

“ People come here for all summer? ” Rose re- 
peated with a gleam of interest which made Anne 
hug herself. At last she had struck the right chord, 
she thought with rejoicing. 

6o 


A CHOICE OF ROOMS 


“ Indeed they do. There’s a nice little hotel, and 
some of the people who live here take boarders, and 
off in — in that direction ” — Anne whirled around 
and pointed vaguely — “ there are ever so many 
lovely houses.” 

“ Oh, well, of course, those people don’t have any- 
thing to do with the natives, and that’s where they’ll 
think we belong.” Rose’s manner held its former 
listless indifference as she started into the dining- 
room with a tray of glasses. 

“ You never can tell,” Connie called after her. 
“ It will be a wonderful experience for them to 
have the Sheldon family here. No one knows what 
may happen.” 

“ Don’t be foolish, Connie.” Rose came back 
looking gloomier than ever, Anne thought. “ It 
isn’t likely we shall know anyone we care for. I’m 
glad, though, that there are some nice houses,” she 
said grudgingly. “ How did you manage to find 
out so much in such a short time? ” 

“ I’ve been here two whole days,” Anne re- 
sponded, “ and first there was Mrs. Storson who 
came to clean; she talked all the time, and about 
half of it I couldn’t understand. And then Mrs. 
Wilber called with a loaf of the loveliest bread I 
ever saw, and I learned a great deal from her. 
Afterwards Mrs. Hitchcock came in with some 
raised doughnuts, and she ” 

6i 


THE SHELDON SIX 


“Anne Sheldon, I believe you’re going to be as 
much of a gossip as Connie is,” Rose interrupted. 
“ I’m going out and talk to the hens; perhaps they 
can tell me some of the village news.” 

For a wonder Connie did not protest against 
being called a gossip, and Anne only laughed. 
“ Don’t go and chum with the hens,” she coaxed. 
“ Tiptoe up-stairs and see if Daddy wants any- 
thing. In ten minutes I’ll come up, too.” 

Rose having departed, Anne scrubbed the dish- 
towels and considered her sister’s problem at the 
same time. “ Isn’t it queer,” her thought ran on, 
“ that less than a year ago I didn’t want to know 
people and now I don’t mind a bit. It isn’t because 
Rose is shy, but she’s choosy. And she likes best 
rich, important persons, and she’s mortally afraid 
someone will snub her because we’re — well, we’re 
not really rich.” Anne wrung out the towels as if 
they were somehow responsible ; then she shook her 
head. “ I shouldn’t say we were exactly poor, 
should you, Connie? ” she asked casually. 

“ I should say not with Daddy and this nice 
house. Who says we’re poor? ” 

“No one, I guess. Come on out while I hang 
these towels on the line. Then we’ll go up- 
stairs.” 

Rose had found her father not only awake but up 
and dressed, and he was not to be persuaded to lie 
62 


A CHOICE OF ROOMS 

on the couch nor to sit in the big chair for the rest 
of the morning. 

“ I’ll look at the house with you, and then Connie 
and I are going out to talk garden. How’s that, 
Connie-chicken? ” 

“ Fine,” agreed Connie with an irrepressible gur- 
gle of laughter, the word chicken having sent her 
mind back to Susan and the brown hen. 

“ This is a queer house,” said Rose as the family 
procession started. “ From the front you think 
there can’t possibly be room enough for a family like 
ours, and then, suddenly, you find it.” 

“ That’s because it started as a small house and 
other rooms were added from time to time,” an- 
swered Mr. Sheldon. “ Cousin Tom put in the 
bathroom and the electric lights for his mother. He 
used to bring his family here summers, but I believe 
now Mrs. Tom prefers hotel life.” 

“ I should think she would. Anyone would, I’m 
sure,” Rose said quickly. “ Fancy being able to 
have pretty dresses, and sit on the piazza of a big 

hotel, and play in tennis tournaments, and ” 

something in the smile with which her father was 
regarding her made her stop suddenly. ‘‘Well, 
anyway, I think it would be nice,” she finished 
under her breath as she followed Anne into a pretty 
room filled with sunshine. 

Now this,” explained Anne, “ was Aunt Se- 
63 


THE SHELDON SIX 

rena’s guest chamber, the cleaning-woman told me. 
If you and I have separate rooms, Rose, one of us 
will have to take the little room you were in last 
night, and the other, this one. Then if we have 
company the one who sleeps here must share Con- 
nie’s bed, or sleep on a couch somewhere.” 

“ Well, I’ll take the little room then,” Rose de- 
cided at once. “ You know I don’t like changing 
about when there’s company.” 

Connie giggled, and Rose turned on her sharply. 

You needn’t laugh. I really do hate being 
turned out more than the rest of you do.” Some- 
how this sounded absurd even to her own ears. 
“ Anyway, if I have a small room I shan’t have so 
much space to be disorderly in,” she finished 
sulkily. 

“ Rose, Rose, you ended your sentence with a 
preposition,” her father said, quite as if that were a 
heart-breaking crime. “ Isn’t your teacher always 
telling you that is an exceedingly wrong thing to 
do?” He was smiling at her whimsically, and 
Rose moved to avoid his glance, but not before she 
had seen him take a pencil and an old envelope 
from his pocket and put it against the wall so that 
he might scribble a few words. 

“ Connie’s room is big enough for a double bed 
and Susan’s little bed, so it won’t be any great hard- 
ship to change over occasionally. Ellis thinks he 


A CHOICE OF ROOMS 


and Jim will like this room, and I’ve saved this 
sunny one for Effie.” Anne pointed out the rooms 
with a feeling of proud ownership which she was 
doing her best not to show. “ There isn’t anything 
in Effie’s room except the bed and bureau, but I 
want you to help me make it pretty. Rose, before 
she gets here.” 

“ All right,” Rose responded with a yawn. “ I 
suppose if the exhibition’s over I’d better go and 
get some things unpacked.” 

A little later, shut in her own room. Rose heard 
her father stop outside the door, and fancied he was 
coming in. The next moment she could hear him 
going down-stairs with Connie, and they were both 
talking gaily. “ You’d think it was the happiest 
day of their lives,” she said to herself bitterly as she 
made her bed. 

“ I’ll do only a little at a time,” she decided, as 
she stopped to listen to a clock that was striking ten. 
“ I suppose Anne will need help about dinner, and 
I’d better offer before she has a chance to ask me.” 
This unexpected bit of thoughtfulness made her a 
degree less blue until it occurred to her that prob- 
ably Anne was making several beds by herself. 
“ Oh, well,” she said with a shrug, “ I can’t do every- 
thing; and I must get settled.” 

Then followed a busy hour and a half, during 
which Rose dug into her trunk, heaped things on 

65 


THE SHELDON SIX 


the bed, hastily filled bureau drawers, and hung 
her dresses in the closet which at first had seemed 
small. “ Big enough for anyone who doesn’t have 
more than I have,” she thought, pitying herself, as 
she often did, on account of the limitations of her 
wardrobe. “ Probably I’ve got all I need for this 
place, though.” 

Finally she shut the trunk with a bang. You’re 
empty,” she said with a satisfaction that was some- 
what dimmed when she looked at her bureau. 
“ What a hodge-podge! Well, I’ll put everything 
away properly some other time.” She closed the 
drawers wdth a firm hand and turned to survey the 
rest of the room. 

“ Thank goodness it’s got two windows, but not 
even Anne could think it was pretty,” she medi- 
tated, as her gaze took in the chocolate-colored 
paper dotted with small red flowers, the dull, yel- 
lowish-brown paint of the woodwork, and the un- 
attractive furniture. She wondered if Anne would 
let her try her hand at making it over, and remem- 
bered that she had seen some old furniture tucked 
away in a sort of trunk-room they had peeped into 
this morning. With a new interest she started at 
once to investigate, but just as she opened her door 
an envelope fell into the room and made her pause. 
She recognized it at once as the one on which 
her father had scribbled while they were deciding 
66 


A CHOICE OF ROOMS 

about rooms, and on it was evidently a note to 
her. 

“ Dear Posy: ” it began. 

“ When I was a youngster my mother used 
to tell me about my great-aunt Harriet, and this 
morning you made me think of her. Mother said 
that when there was something on the table which 
this great-aunt liked very much she would often 
say, ‘ I’ll eat what’s left of the strawberries ’ (or 
the peaches or the cakes, as it might happen) ; ‘ you 
know I like them better than the rest of you do.’ 

“ ‘A word to the wise ’ from 

“ Your loving 

‘‘ Dad.” 

‘‘ Now what does he mean by that? ” Rose 
asked herself blankly as she read the little note over 
for the second time. “My respected ances — ^ances- 
tress was certainly a selfish thing. But what made 
him think to write that to me? I’m not a pig about 
taking things at the table, am I? ” 

Her inner self, to whom this last question seemed 
to be addressed, answered never a word, but went 
busily to work to stir up the recollections of the last 
few hours. “ What did I say that made him think 
of that? ” queried Rose uneasily, and on the instant 
that same inner self unlocked the memory which 
answered her question. As clearly as possible she 
could hear herself saying, “ I’ll take the little room, 
6/ 


THE SHELDON SIX 


then,” and when Connie giggled, “ you needn’t 
laugh. I really do hate being turned out more 
than the rest of you do.” 

“ Well, I do, I do, I do,” Rose repeated stub- 
bornly, quite as though the repetition would make 
it not only true but excusable. Then she frowned. 
“ Connie thought that was selfish, and I suppose 
Anne did, only she’s too polite to laugh.” The 
thought of Anne made her realize that the morning 
must be nearly gone, and that if she did not hurry 
she wouldn’t be in time to help. 

“ I wonder if that great-aunt of Daddy’s ever 
helped,” she was thinking as she brushed with vig- 
orous hand the little curls that blew around her 
face. “ I suppose Ellis and Jimsey — perhaps 
Susan, too — think I’m piggy. Well, it isn’t every 
day you can get a clear picture of just where you 
stand with your family. Anyway, it is harder for 
some people, and I’m one of ’em.” With which 
consoling declaration she tightened the ribbon on 
the end of her yellow braid and started for the door 
again. 

‘‘ I’m not going to let Daddy know I even saw 
his old note,” she said, pausing half-way. “ Per- 
haps he’ll think I threw it in the scrap-basket with- 
out looking.” Then, with her hand on the door- 
knob, she stopped again. “ Probably he doesn’t 
expect me to mention it,” she reflected, wise in her 
68 


A CHOICE OF BOOMS 


previous knowledge of her father’s methods. 
“ He’s just given me the idea, and he expects me to 
know what to do about it. Glory! It’s some 
stunt to live up to a family like this. Poor little 
old Rose doesn’t belong, and she’d better get busy 
and stop thinking about her sins.” 

The next instant she was out of her room and 
hurrying down-stairs in search of Anne. 


69 


CHAPTER V 


THE BOY IN THE WHEEL-CHAIR 

“ I DR-ROVE a whole mile — a whole big mile,’’ 
chanted Susan, hurrying in from the customary 
hand-washing just as Rose entered the dining- 
room. “ Mr. Bonyparte he looked ’wound and 
when he saw me he made up his mind to go lickety- 
split.” 

“ Ho ! Lickety-split for him is just about crawl- 
ing for a fast horse,” averred Jimsey, standing be- 
hind his chair the way Father and Ellis did until his 
sisters were seated. “ He did go pretty well, 
though, when I drove.” 

“ It takes an A No. 1 driver to hold the reins over 
that steed of Anne’s,” Ellis drawled. “ Say, Father, 
do you think you’ll feel well enough to go out in the 
garden pretty soon? I want to tell you everything 
I’ve learned this morning before I forget it.” 

“Daddy and I have been out already making 
plans,” said Connie with pride. 

“ Fine ! I thought you were going to stay in bed 
all the morning. Dad. This air must be doing you 
70 


THE BOY, IN THE WHEEL-CHAIR 


good.” Ellis beamed with satisfaction. His alarm 
about his father’s health had gone deeper than he 
had allowed anyone to suspect, and to see an im- 
provement at once was more than he had dared to 
hope. 

“ I was afraid we’d be late for planting,” 
answered Mr. Sheldon, “ but Ezra tells me the sea- 
son has been backward. He thinks our greatest 
trouble will be in getting help. It’s high and 
scarce.” 

“ He says he can help us a little; but his time is 
pretty well taken,” Ellis responded soberly. 
“ Anyway, Dad, I’m awfully strong, and you can 
count on me to be on the job all summer.” 

Anne, who had been listening quietly, was thrilled 
by her brother’s promise. Ellis was going to play 
the game, she told herself exultantly. It interested 
Anne to think of life as a game in which, as in 
checkers, one played for the king-row, and often 
found oneself in corners from which it was difficult 
to escape. 

“ You’re a trump, Ellis, and I think I can tell 
you what to do. And I shall be able to do a good 
day’s work in a very short time.” The old hope- 
fulness and conviction rang in Daddy’s voice as it 
had not in many months. “ Connie and the children 
will help about the weeding, I’m sure, and that’s no 
small part.” 


71 


THE SHELDON SIX 


‘‘ I intend to do almost all about the flower- 
garden/’ Connie put in. “ You forgot I said I’d 
take that off your shoulders, Daddy.” 

“ Excuse me, so I did,” her father answered 
without a hint of a smile. “ But you’ll need some 
help along the first of it from Ellis and me. If we 
all work together we shall do great things.” 

Rose, taking in the conversation in unwonted 
silence, wondered why her father or Ellis didn’t re- 
quest her aid. She was almost as strong as a boy ; 
and lots of girls had worked on farms during war- 
time. They had not mentioned Anne, either, but 
that was because she wasn’t strong and had so much 
to do indoors. Everyone knew Anne was ready to 
help when she could. That was just the difference. 
Rose told herself with disconcerting frankness: the 
family was used to seeing her slide out of hard 
things and they didn’t seem to expect her to be will- 
ing to give a push to the family machine. 

“ Wake up, Rose, and have some rice pudding. 
I put in loads of raisins because you like it that 
way.” 

Rose started. She had been so absorbed that 
Anne had taken the dishes into the kitchen and 
brought in the dessert unnoticed by her. She had 
meant to do that, and her conscience pricked be- 
cause her sister looked tired. 

“ Nan, you take a nap, and I’ll wash the dishes. 
72 


THE BOY IN THE WHEEL CHAIR 


111 do everything as spick and span and pernickety 
as you would/’ she said as they rose from the table. 

“ Oh, I’ll help,” began Anne, but something in 
her sister’s expression silenced her. “ All right, 
you’re a dear,” she agreed. “ I believe I could 
sleep a little if I tried, and I’m just pining to write 
a letter.” 

“ To your beloved, wonderful Miss Graham, I 
suppose.” Rose’s tone was not pleasant. “ For 
goodness’ sake. Nan, don’t ask her here this sum- 
mer. There are some things I absolutely can’t 
stand, and that’s one of ’em.” 

“ I’m not going to, but I only wish I could. She 
has so many friends I suppose she has more invita- 
tions than she can accept,” Anne answered with a 
sigh. She was used to Rose’s attitude toward this 
delightful friend of hers and she did not intend to 
be troubled by it. Anyway Daddy and the others 
liked Miss Graham. 

“ What makes you think she’s so popular as all 
that?” Rose demanded, and then, because Anne 
looked hurt, repented. “ Oh, run away, Nancy, 
and leave me alone, or I shall say something worse 
than that. I’m grouchy.” 

“ All right,” Anne said again, and straightway 
departed. 

Nan was rather satisfying when one offered to do 
anything for her. Rose conceded, as she began to 
73 


THE SHELDON SIX 


clear the table. She didn’t hang around and fret 
about how it was to be done, but left you to manage 
it your own way. Which, of course, put you 
frightfully on honor. 

As she washed and rinsed and dried the dishes her 
mind was busy. For some reason she fell to think- 
ing about Anne, and she wondered if it were be- 
cause her sister had tried to believe she could that 
she had succeeded in throwing off her shyness, and 
in becoming the steering-gear of the imaginary 
family car as Daddy had suggested. Or perhaps the 
wonderful Miss Jean Graham had ‘‘ magicked ” her 
and made her think anything was possible if she 
really tried. 

Rose’s lip curled a little over this last idea. 
“ Anne is more easily influenced than I am,” she 
said to herself. ‘‘ When people preach at me I 
just want to go up in the air and do the very 
opposite.” 

She drew some fresh water for the cooking- 
dishes, and scrubbed away at them with a will, 
frowning impatiently when a sudden chorus of 
laughter floated in from the garden. It occurred 
to her that her family did not miss her at all. ‘‘ I 
don’t seem to belong,” she told herself bitterly, 
“ ’specially now that Anne and Ellis are so 
chummy.” 

While she finished her work as carefully as she 
74 


THE BOY. IN THE WHEEL CHAIR 

knew Anne would have done it she felt a great lone- 
liness of spirit. She wished she were back in Mel- 
ford and could run out and spend the afternoon 
with her friends. She might, she supposed, go out 
and see what Ellis was doing, but her feelings were 
too hurt for that. She would not push her advice 
and assistance where they were so little wanted. 
And even while she was thinking this something 
healthy and with a keen sense of justice rose up 
within her. '‘Nonsense! Of course they want 
you,” it said. “ Haven’t you always been skipping 
off to play tennis or see someone when you were 
most needed? The rest of them have got used to 
doing without you.” 

“ For goodness’ sake ! What a sermon 1 ” Rose 
was startled by the realization that she was being 
accused by her own self, but she refused to admit 
her shortcomings. “ I only do what other girls do,” 
she thought excusingly. “You can only be young 
once, and I’m going to have a good time. At least 
I should if I could have stayed behind in Melford.” 
Her mind, not the stern inner voice of a moment 
ago, but the mind that approved of her, dallied with 
the delightful possibilities of the summer in Mel- 
ford, herself a welcome visitor, admired and made 
much of, the days, a continuous round of good 
times. “ Oh, well,” she said to herself drearily as 
she went up to her room, “ I suppose the summer 
75 


THE SHELDON SIX 


will go some w^ay and I shall live through it. They 
needn’t expect me to enjoy anything, though.” 

An hour later, having heard Anne proclaim that 
she had had a nice nap and was now ready for 
callers, Rose decided hastily to take a walk. If 
callers were likely to come she did not want to be 
at home. 

“ I’m going to explore. Nan,” she said briefly, 
meeting her sister in the hall. “ I — I’d rather go 
alone,” she hastened to add. “ Don’t tell the others 
I’ve gone, please.” 

“ I won’t. If you follow this road to the left 
you’ll come out by the lake. Ellis says it’s a little 
more than a mile. He’d love to show it to you.” 

“ He’s busy. I suppose I ought to go out and 
help him — or do something for you.” Rose had not 
meant to suggest this, but, to her own surprise, she 
found herself hoping that Anne would say they 
needed her. 

But Anne, who often had an almost uncanny way 
of knowing what others were thinking, failed this 
time to understand the unconscious appeal in Rose’s 
eyes. “ Oh, we’ll get along. We weren’t depend- 
ing on you for anything,” she answered cheerfully, 
and then was haunted for some time by the thought 
that her sister had looked disappointed. 

Once outside. Rose stopped to consider the dif- 
ferent ways, and because the one Anne had sug- 
76 


THE BOY IN THE WHEEL CHAIR 

gested looked most inviting, followed it, staring 
straight ahead of her as she walked, and scarcely 
conscious of the spring freshness about her. Far 
in the distance was a misty line of hills, perhaps 
mountains, and nearer at hand rose the hill of which 
Ellis had spoken yesterday. Maybe it would be 
fun to climb it some day, she thought, beginning to 
feel that in this place one must grasp even small 
possibilities of pleasure. 

It seemed to her that she must have walked more 
than a mile when she came to the lake which 
gleamed like a sapphire in the afternoon sunshine. 
On one side were the pretty houses of which Anne 
had spoken. Most of them looked as if still buried 
in their winter sleep, but one of them, the nearest to 
this end of the lake, older and less pretentious than 
many of the others, showed signs of life. While 
she stood there a man came out of the house with 
what looked like a steamer-chair filled with wraps. 

Not liking to stare even at this distance, Rose 
turned her attention to deciding which road of the 
two that were before her she should take. One lay 
along the edge of the lake where there was a strip 
of white beach and what she supposed must be a 
bath-house. The other, an offshoot from the main 
road, mounted to a pine-clad height which looked 
down on the lake. 

“ I’ll go up there and sit for a while where I can 
77 


THE SHELDON SIX 

see the water,” Rose decided, and walked quickly 
up the narrow road to the top, and then across a 
tree-covered space carpeted with pine-needles. At 
the very edge of the cliff she sat down, and looking 
over, found herself directly above the other road, 
which widened considerably just here. Not far 
from her she noticed a steep path, worn hy venture- 
some feet that scorned the flight of steps which 
some little distance away led to the beach. 

Except for the ripple of water on the sand it was 
very still here. Too still. Rose thought, and after 
a little while of gazing listlessly at the dazzling 
water and the tree-shaded shores she was quite 
ready to turn homewards. She was just about to 
get up when the sound of voices on the beach below 
made her peer over the edge. There she saw a man 
wheeling — it wasn’t a steamer-chair, after all, that 
she had seen at the house nearest the lake, but a 
wheel-chair, and in it was a boy. At least Rose 
thought it was a boy and guessed that he might be 
about Ellis’ age. He must be an invalid, she sup- 
posed, but his voice sounded cheerful. 

“ There we are, Hegan,” he was saying as the 
man wheeled the chair into the spot to which its 
occupant was pointing. “ Here, my feet will be in 
the simshine and my head out of it. Now if you’ll 
trot back to the house and get that book I forgot to 
bring I shall be much obliged.” 

78 


THE BOY. IN THE WHEEL CHAIR 


Rose smiled in spite of herself at the word trot ** 
in connection with the amiable-looking giant stand- 
ing by the chair. 

‘‘ You might just open that umbrella before you 
go and leave it where I can grab it in case the light 
shifts into my eyes,” the boy went on. “And, He- 
gan, I’m not in a hurry for the book, and if Miss 
Ellen wants you for anything, you do it before you 
come back.” 

“All right, Mr. Neil.” Hegan was bending over 
the boy as if he were fond of him. Rose thought, and 
tucking him in with exceeding care. Then he de- 
parted with long strides that in no way resembled 
a trot. 

Left to himself, the boy on the beach adjusted to 
his satisfaction a board which rested on the arms of 
his chair and laid a book thereon. Presently he 
took a note-book and pencil from a hanging pocket 
and scribbled busily. 

Suddenly conscious that she was spying. Rose 
drew herself back from the edge and once more 
made up her mind to go home. She had meant to 
go down the steps and take the lower road, but this 
she gave up. “ He thinks he’s alone,” she said to 
herself, “ and probably he hates to be looked at.” 
Entirely well and strong herself she pitied, but 
avoided whenever she could, persons who were ill 
or unhappy. 


79 


THE SHELDON SIX 

She sat there a few moments longer, then, as she 
rose to her feet, the sound of voices made her look 
down at the beach again to see three small, ragged- 
looking boys, one in advance and the others lagging 
behind him. 

“ Hi, boys, c’mon! Here’s de guy all alone. I 
tol’ yer I seen de big feller goin’ off.” Then, to 
Rose’s horror, she saw a stone fly from the leader’s 
hand straight at the boy in the chair. 

She hesitated just for the second she needed to 
decide between the steps and the path; if she took 
the latter she would be a little behind them and they 
might not see her so soon. As she started down, 
half -running, half -sliding, she saw that the boy in 
the chair had seized the open umbrella and was 
holding it shield-wise over his head. 

To Rose’s delight she was almost upon the small 
boys before they realized her coming, and she man- 
aged a back-handed slap at one of them while she 
was pouncing upon the leader, who was too much 
absorbed to be aware of anything else. When he 
felt the grip of her strong hands on his shoulders, 
and had twisted himself to look into her frowning 
face, he squeaked shrilly to his followers: 

“ Hi, fellers ! Let her have it ; it’s only a girl.” 

“ You would, would you? ” snapped Rose, thrust- 
ing him between herself and the other boys who 
promptly dropped their weapons and fled. Then 
8o 


THE BOY IN THE WHEEHCHAIR 


she gave him a shake that she was ashamed of after- 
wards because he seemed so pitifully thin and small. 
‘‘ What do you mean by throwing stones at someone 
who can’t chase you? ” she demanded sternly. 
“ What ” 

“ Bring him over here, will you, please,” a clear 
voice interrupted, and for a moment Rose nearly 
lost her grip on her prisoner who, in a spasm of 
fright, wriggled successfully out from one of her 
hands, but just missed going free. 

“ I ain’t a-goin’ over dere,” he whimpered. 
“ He — he’ll give me to de big feller.” 

“ Well, you deserve it,” Rose answered as she 
pushed the struggling boy ahead of her. “ Brace 
up and don’t be a baby. If you’re big enough to 
throw stones, you’re big enough to take what’s com- 
ing to you.” 

But the youngster whimpered and twisted until 
Rose had him within clutching distance of the older 
boy. Then he shrank against her, and she could 
feel his body tremble and hear an occasional shud- 
dering breath. With his thin face and beady black 
eyes he seemed like a small trapped animal, and she 
began to feel sorry for him. 

“ What did you do it for, Johnny? ” questioned 
the older boy, smiling in spite of an effort to look 
stern. “You needn’t bother to tell me; I know. 
You’re one of the boys that played the mischief in 

8i 


THE SHELDON SIX 


our garden the other day. And what did the big 
man tell you he’d do if he caught you at anything 
else?” 

“ E-e-eat me,” wailed the boy, ducking and twist- 
ing almost out of Rose’s grasp. His terror was so 
extreme that she was tempted to let him go, but her 
faith in the kindness of the other boy made her take 
a fresh grasp instead. ‘‘ I won’t let anyone eat 
you,” she promised, giving him a shake less forcible 
and more friendly than the one which had pre- 
ceded it. 

“ He isn’t a pleasant object to hold, is he? ” said 
the boy in the chair with an appreciative grin. 
“ See here, old chap, if we let you off now will you 
promise not to throw stones again? No, don’t 
promise,” he added before the boy had time even to 
nod, “ that’ll only get you in worse, perhaps. Hold 
on a second while I think.” He stared solemnly 
at the urchin, whose eyes were beginning to lose 
some of their terror, then fumbled in his pocket. 

‘‘ My name’s Neil Ramsay. What’s yours, 
young ’un? ” 

“ Pete. Pete Silva,” muttered the boy. 

“ You and those other boys live over in Mill 
Hollow, and you’re the boss of the gang, aren’t 
you? ” 

Pete nodded, and there was a gleam of satisfac- 
tion in his wary glance. 

82 



he: ISN’T A pleasant object TO HOED, IS HE? 


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THE BOY IN THE WHEEL CHAIR 


Neil Ramsay pulled his hand out of his pocket. 
“Look here, Pete, what’s this?” he asked unex- 
pectedly. 

“A — a nickel.” The boy’s eyes gloated on the 
coin. 

“ Want it ? ” 

“ Uh-huh.” His glance was hungry for it, but 
he was cautious to the point of indifference. 

“ If I give you this will you come to my house 
and see me next Saturday afternoon? ” 

“ AVill — will de big feller be wit’ yer? ” 

“ Maybe. But if he is he won’t hurt you. Buck 
up, man. Don’t let us think you’re afraid. I can’t 
believe you’re the boss of that gang.” 

The boy swallowed with difficulty, “ I — I’ll 
come,” he said hoarsely. 

“ Listen, here’s a bargain.” Neil Ramsay was 
smiling now, and the boy, by this time free from 
Rose’s grasp, went, in spite of himself, a step 
nearer. “ If you’ll show me this nickel on Satur- 
day I’ll give you another one to go with it. Do 
you think you can keep from spending it until 
then?” 

“ I— I dunno.” 

“ I’m thinking of having some ice-cream on Sat- 
urday,” the boy in the chair remarked casually to 
Rose. “ Perhaps some candy. Kind of a party, 
you know.” 


83 


THE SHELDON SIX 


“ Can’t I come if I don’t keep the fi’ cents? ” de- 
manded Pete. 

“ Yes, come anyway. But I’d just like to see 
if you’re smart enough to keep it. Some boys 
wouldn’t be. Here! Take it. It’s yours. If 
you bring it next Saturday I shall think you’re 
worth knowing.” 

Pete took it half-doubtfully. “ Kin I — ^kin I 
bring Reddy to de show? ” he asked after a mo- 
ment’s reflection. 

The boy in the chair regarded him questioningly. 
“ Do you believe Reddy would be a good fellow at 
a party — ^not bring any stones with him — wash his 
hands and all that sort of thing, you know? ” 

“ He’s gotta do right if I say so,” answered Pete, 
his black eyes snapping. “ He’s gotta clean his- 
self.” 

“ Then go to it; it’ll take you a week,” murmured 
Neil, and added quickly, “ Scoot along now, and 
don’t forget to come to my party and bring your 
nickel.” 

“And — and Reddy.” Pete was off without a 
backward glance. 

“ There! Ellen and I have been wanting to get 
hold of the leader of that gang and I believe this 
is the one,” Neil Ramsay said, settling back in his 
chair wearily. 

Rose laughed. “ He thinks so anyway. I can 
84 


THE BOY IN THE WHEEL-CHAIR 


fancy him making Reddy ‘ clean hisself/ I gave a 
good slap to someone. I wonder if that was 
Reddy.” 

“ I have to thank you for coming to the rescue,” 
the boy said gratefully. “ The umbrella wouldn’t 
have lasted long. My sister will fall on your neck 
with gratitude. Ellen and I live in the old brown 
house back there. Are you staying in Brookfield? ” 

“ I’m Rose Sheldon. We’ve just come here for 
the summer,” Rose explained hastily. “ We 
live ” 

“ You needn’t tell me where you live,” Neil Ram- 
say interrupted. “ We’ve known Aunt Serena 
Merrill ever since we can remember, and Ellen has 
been watching for your family. I wish she could 
have seen you scrambling down that steep path.” 

“ I must have been a sight.” 

‘‘ You were,” grinned the boy, and then his face 
grew sober. “ If you’d ever been stuck in a chair 
and couldn’t move you’d know how fine a sight you 
looked to me.” 

The color deepened in Rose’s cheeks and for an 
embarrassed moment she wondered if she ought to 
say something sympathetic, and searched her mind 
for the right thing. Not finding it, she murmured 
hastily, “ I must go. Anne will be sure I’m lost.” 

‘‘ Is Anne your sister? ” 

“ Yes. There are six of us. Ellis first — almost 

85 


THE SHELDON Sm 

eighteen; Anne will be seventeen in October; I’m 
pretty nearly fifteen, and Connie is twelve. Susan 
and Jimsey are six and eight.” Rose ended ab- 
ruptly, realizing that if any of the others Had talked 
so freely about the family to a perfect stranger she 
would probably have found fault with the offender. 

“ It must be jolly with so many of you. Ellen 
and I have just each other,” Neil Ramsay said wist- 
fully. Then his face brightened. ‘‘ We’re a 
mighty good team, all the same, even if it is a small 
one, and it’s team work that counts. I bet you’ve 
played enough hockey and basket-ball to know 
that.” 

“ Of course I do. And I like out-of-door games 
better than anything else. Aren’t they exciting? ” 
And then Rose had another moment of discomfort 
because she had talked of sports to this boy who was 
so obviously out of them. 

“ They’re great,” Neil answered briefly. ‘‘ Oh, 
I say, then, you’re the very one Ellen and I want 
to help us on our latest plans. Will you? ” 

“ How can I tell until I know what they are? ” 
laughed Rose. 

“Well, for one thing, we want to get hold of 
these Mill Hollow boys — ^have a club or something 
of that kind. We shall need someone to teach them 
outdoor games, and how to play fair, and — and to 
be good sports when they don’t win. That’s about 
86 


THE BOY IN THE WHEEL^CHAIB 

the hardest thing — to keep on fighting when you’re 
on the losing side.” Just for an instant the boyish 
faee grew sober, and the young eyes held a bitter 
knowledge, but the next moment he was smiling 
again. “ Will you help us now you know about 
it? ” he persisted coaxingly. 

“ I never could teach anyone anything,” Rose de- 
murred. “ My patience is about a minute long.” 

“ Nonsense! Yes, you can too. Just wait a 
little and you’ll find yourself Director of Athletics. 
Ellen is great on ‘ eats,’ and that counts for a lot 
with boys, but she isn’t strong on games.” 

“ I’m sure Ellis will teach for you, and Anne will 
love to help feed them,” murmiu*ed Rose. “And 
Connie ” 

“ Seems to me you’re very generous about offer- 
ing everyone except yourself,” interrupted Neil 
with a grin. “ Well, of course, no one’s going to 
oblige you to do anything, but I hoped you would. 
Somehow I got the idea Avhen I saw you plunging 
down the hill that if you once started anything 
you’d put it through.” 

“ Now you’re making fun of me, and just to 
punish you I shan’t promise anything. Oh, there’s 
your man — I must go. You’ll be all right now 
even if those little imps should come back.” 

“ Oh, I say, have you been waiting for that? It 
was dandy of you. I shall tell Ellen all about my 
«7 


THE SHELDON SIX 

thrilling rescue, and she’ll be over to see you very 
soon. She’s nicer than her brother; she doesn’t 
tease.” 

Rose laughed and said good-bye hastily. As she 
went along the homeward road she looked with 
eager curiosity at the house where Neil and his 
sister lived. It was certainly not so new as the 
others, and she had to confess that it looked shabby, 
but now there was something interesting about it. 
She wondered what Ellen looked like and how old 
she was. “ Probably she’s his grown-up sister and 
takes care of him,” she decided. 

As she went into the house she could hear the 
family talking in the living-room, and Connie 
seemed to be holding the floor. 

“ Miss Eunice Dean’s got the homeiest house,” 
Connie was saying, “ and right in one corner of it 
is the dearest little shop for her sister. Miss Erne- 
line. And she’s so thin and white you’d think she’d 
blow away, the sister, I mean, not Miss Eunice, but 
she’s awfully cheerful. She’s got the cutest things 
to sell, and she said I might come and help her some 

day. And ” she stopped abruptly, for Rose 

came into the room at that moment, and Connie was 
not at all sure that this budget of town news would 
appeal to her older sister. 

“ Connie’s been taking a neighborly walk,” Anne 
said with a chuckle, guessing what Connie might be 
88 


THE BOY IN THE WHEEHCHAIB 

thinking. “ I suppose she’s afraid you might not 
be interested in hearing that she’s made a new ac- 
quaintance.” 

“ Oh, I don’t mind,” Rose answered with sur- 
prising cheerfulness, and then paused an instant 
before launching a bomb at her unsuspecting fam- 
ily. “ If she can go me any better I’d like to hear 
about it. I ” — her brown eyes sparkled, and for 
the moment she was the nicest Rose they knew — 
“ I’ve slapped one little boy, shaken another, talked 
with a big hoy, and been invited to help run a club. 
So there!” 


89 


CHAPTER VI 


A MORNING CALL 

“Any for me? Oh, Ellis, have you got one for 
me? ” Rose hurried down the path to meet her 
brother, who was just returning from the post-office. 
“ If someone hasn’t written from Melford by this 
time I shall be too disappointed for words.” 

“ You’ve only been here a week,” said her 
brother. “ You can’t expect your friends to write 
the minute you get away.” And then because his 
sister’s face grew sober, he relented and drew a fat 
letter from his pocket. “ Here’s one from your — 
beloved — chum,” he drawled, holding it out of her 
reach, and scrutinizing the envelope. “ Such hen- 
tracks ! It looks to me like Miss Bou Sheltoy. 
That postmaster is some little vdzard to know 

enough to put that in our box. Now 

“Oh, fiddle!” Rose, with an agile leap, cap- 
tured the letter. “ Didn’t I get anything else? ” 
**You grasping thing! No! There are some 
for Father, and one for me from a hotel in New 
York, Wait a minute and I’ll open it.” Ellis put 
90 


A MORNING CALL 


down his parcels with exasperating slowness, and 
Rose, hugging her precious letter, waited. 

“ To think I didn’t know that writing 1 It’s from 
Archibald Bradley, Junior, if you please. iWell, 
what do you think — they landed two weeks ago and 
this is the first chance he’s found to write. Great 
plans brewing, but he can’t tell me about them 
just yet. ‘Excuse short letter’ (same old gag) 

‘ but will tell you all about the Alice Bell and our 
voyage when we meet.’ He’s kept putting off tell- 
ing us about that voyage ever since they started. 
Archie is a poor letter-writer. Oh, in the post- 
script he says Roger had a letter from Anne telling 
them about our summer plans. That’s good. Now 
I shan’t have to explain things when I write.” 
Ellis ended with a sigh of heartfelt gratitude. 

“Huh! You’re just the same kind of a little 
letter-writer Archie is,” murmured Rose, who was 
already tearing open her own letter and now 
dropped into a porch chair to enjoy it. It was not 
long after breakfast, the dishes, thank goodness, 
were done; as soon as she read this she must go up- 
stairs and find out what Anne was doing. She re- 
membered with blissful relief that Effie was coming 
this afternoon, and scarcely heard Ellis, who was 
shouting to Anne the latest news about Archie 
Bradley. 

Half an hour later, having read and meditated 

91 


THE SHELDON SIX 


and reread, she slowly went up-stairs, with her mind 
full of Melford good times, to find Anne, flushed 
and tired, trying to coax a big chair through the 
doorway of her own room. 

“ I’m going to put this rocking-chair into Effie’s 
chamber,” explained Anne. “ She needs some- 
thing comfy when she’s on her feet so much.” 

“ What makes you try to do it all before she gets 
here? ” grumbled Rose, taking the chair from her 
sister’s unresisting grasp and pulling it along the 
hall to the doorway of the room allotted to Effie. 
“ When she’s doing the work you’ll have a lot more 
time.” 

“ I know it. I’ve really given up most of the 
things I wanted — like sash-curtains and — and ” 

“ Fiddlesticks ! Effie won’t expect those things,” 
Rose interrupted. “ Besides, she’ll be here this 
afternoon and there isn’t time.” 

“ There’d be time enough if I had someone to 
help me,” Anne persisted. “ Except Daddy, 
Effie’s the one who does most for us, and I should 
like to make her room seem cosy. I’m positive 
there are things in that storeroom that would help 
out, but I haven’t had time to explore.” 

Rose shrugged. “ I’m crazy to wash my hair 
this morning,” she muttered ; “ it’s a gorgeous day 
for drying it. It seems to me I’ve had to work 
nearly every minute since I’ve been here.” 

92 


A MORNING CALL 


Anne looked at her queerly, drew in her Kreath 
as if she were about to say something and then fore- 
bore to say it. “ I suppose it does seem like that/’ 
she murmured at last. “ I feel so, too, but I don’t 
see my way to stopping just yet. And it helps so 
much when we all work together.” 

She went toward her own room as she finished 
speaking, leaving her sister frowning and irresolute. 
For some reason Anne’s last remark had brought to 
Rose’s mind a vivid picture of her friendly acquaint- 
ance in the wheel-chair, and the eager way in which 
he had said, “ It’s team-work that counts.” It had 
never occurred to her before to apply the idea of 
the team-spirit to home life, but she was obliged 
grudgingly to admit that it fitted there as well as in 
games. 

“ Say, Nan,” she called, hurrying after her sis- 
ter, “ I’ll go into the storeroom and see what I 
can find if you’ll let me do it my way and not 
bother to ask you about everything.” 

‘‘ Of course,” answered Anne. ‘‘ I was just go- 
ing to see if there might be some stuff for curtains 
in one of the trunks, but I’d much rather you’d do 
it. And I won’t interfere the least little bit— I like 
your taste, you know.” 

Rose made her a low bow. “ Now you’re flatter- 
ing me so that I’ll do things for you,” she said more 
cheerfully than she had spoken before. “ Will you 
93 


THE SHELDON SIX 

promise that if I make that room look prettier you 
won’t ask me to wash any more dishes for you 
to-day? ” 

“ Not a dish,” Anne responded, sternly repress- 
ing a very human desire to inform her sister that 
it was not for her — Anne — that she would be work- 
ing, but for the family, and that it was almost as 

much Rose’s place as her own to “ Oh, what’s 

the use? ” Anne admonished herself sharply as she 
went back to finish her bed-making. This summer 
must go smoothly for Father, she was thinking, as 
she patted and pulled and smoothed. She must not 
let it make the slightest difference to her whether 
Rose did things as a favor, or because it was her 
place to do them. 

She stopped work for a few moments to gaze out 
of the window at the garden, where Father and 
Ellis were busily working, with the younger chil- 
dren trying to help. It thrilled her to realize that 
this was her garden, and this room was a part of her 
o^vn house. She felt that she should never want to 
sell it — that even the prospect of college could not 
reconcile her to giving up all this. “ Silly! I 
don’t have to decide about that this morning,” she 
said, going back to her work with eyes still a little 
dreamy. In spite of herself her mind ran on in 
wonderful imaginings; perhaps she should live here 
summer after summer; perhaps — her breath came 
94 


A MORNING CALL 


more quickly for a moment — perhaps she should 
write stories here some time. Even after she had 
gone down-stairs to dust the living-room, she let 
herself plan beautiful things that might happen; it 
made housework easier when she decorated it with 
the pleasant pictures of her mind. 

In the meantime Rose, having stopped to slip on 
her oldest blouse and skirt, and tie an enveloping 
scarf about her head, had plunged into the mysteries 
of trunks and boxes. This part of it would be fun, 
she conceded, if it were not keeping her in the house 
on such a glorious day. She tried to fix her atten- 
tion on certain material for Effie’s windows, but her 
mind would wander in spite of her efforts. Old 
dresses — sometime she must try them on and do her 
hair high and surprise the family; some dimity — 
white with yellow rosebuds — why not dress up her 
own room? — ^this would make lovely covers for 
toilet-table and bureau, and a yellow room would 
be cheerful at least. But there wasn’t any toilet- 
table in her room and the paper was horrid. Rose 
pushed some floating locks of hair out of her eyes 
with the back of her hand, and gazed about the 
storeroom. Tucked into a corner she could see 
something that looked like a toilet-table, and with 
the precious dimity in her hand she started across 
the room. 

“A mirror and a long drawer, and two dinky 
95 


THE SHEtBON SIX 

drawers on each side! What luck!” she said al- 
most unbelievingly. “ I don’t suppose Anne will 
care to use it — anyway, I want it most — ^most 
awfully.” She added the last two words hastily, in 
deference to a sudden vision of the great-aunt her 
father’s note had mentioned. “Anyway, you have 
to know what you want and go for it. No one else 
will do it,” she murmured, as she pulled the table 
out from under the eaves and began measuring the 
length of it with the dimity. “ I wonder if there’s 
a place for it in my room.” 

Carefully keeping the measure of length she 
started for her own room, scarcely noticing as she 
went through the hall that Anne was talking to 
someone at the front door. Exultantly she found 
that there was a corner which seemed to be crying 
out for the toilet-table. “ It ought to have a glass 
top,” she mused, standing in front of it; “perhaps 
I can manage it in some way. I could make a bed- 
spread out of the dimity. But this awful paper! 
It would be pretty to have a white ground with 
yellow flowers on it.” Rose’s eyes kindled with the 
vision of the room as she could make it if she had 
money. “ Perhaps Daddy could think up a way. 
He likes to plan rooms. I wonder if there’s any- 
thing more in the storeroom that would make it look 
pretty.” 

On the way back to the treasure-house Rose 
96 


A MORNING CALL 


stopped just long enough to realize that Anne was 
saying good-bye to one caller and welcoming an^ 
other. 

“ Goodness! Do they have morning receptions 
here?’’ she said to herself with anxiety. “Any- 
way, Anne knows enough not to call me.” For the 
next half-hour, deep in her investigations, she for- 
got there were such things as too-friendly neighbors 
who would call whether one wanted them or not. 
Then a discovery which seemed a little more won- 
derful than the rest sent her flying down-stairs, 
talking as she went. 

“Oh, Nan! Nan! I’ve found some gorgeous 
things to make my room pretty — a dinky toilet- 
table, some hanging book-shelves, an old-fashioned 
rug, just the right colors, and — why, where are 
you, Nancy? ” 

She poked her head into the living-room only to 
find it empty. “Nan! Nan! Where are you? ” 
she repeated impatiently, and then Anne, with a 
note of warning in her voice which Rose was too 
absorbed to perceive, called from the front porch. 

“ Well, you’re certainly taking it easy while I’m 
working hard,” Rose said, stepping from the 
shadowy hall into the bright sunshine. The next 
instant she gave a gasp of dismay, for in the path 
the boy in the wheel-chair sat amusedly smiling at 
her, and on the steps near him were Anne and some- 
97 


THE SHELDON SIX 

one else — a small, exquisitely-neat, brown-haired 
girl, who sprang up eagerly to meet the newcomer. 
Immediately Rose was conscious that her face and 
hands were dirty, her hair flying, and her dress not 
fit to be seen. 

“ I was just coming to tell you that Miss Ramsay 

and her brother began Anne, but her sister 

had turned to flee. 

“ Back in five minutes,” she called as she went 
up the front stairs two steps at a time. 

“ I bet it’ll be fifteen,” Neil Ramsay flung after 
her, and his ringing laugh chased her up-stairs. 

“ You had four seconds to spare,” he said when 
she had reappeared, and had been properly intro- 
duced to his sister. “ You’re a wonder. I didn’t 
know a girl could do it.” 

“ When Rose starts, things fly,” Anne said. 

‘‘ I’ve heard they do,” put in Ellen quickly. 
‘‘ Oh, Rose — you and Anne won’t mind if I call you 
by your first names right away, will you? — Rose, I 
can’t thank you enough for taking care of my big 
brother, Those little imps might really have hurt 
him.” 

“ Some rescue,” said Neil, trying to smile, and 
looking so much as if he hated to be talked about 
that Anne abruptly changed the subject. 

“ I’m always so thankful when Rose takes any- 
thing off my shoulders,” she said hastilv. “ She’s 
98 


A MORNING CALL 


sure to put it through much sooner than I could. 
She’s been exploring this morning — trying to find 
things to dress up one of the rooms. Did you get 
much done. Rose? ” 

They were all gazing at her interestedly as if they 
expected to hear what treasures she had unearthed, 
and for the first time Rose realized clearly that she 
had spent her time so far in planning and seeking 
decorations for her own room. Then it occurred 
to her that she must make some answer to Anne’s 
question. “ N-not much,” she faltered, and with- 
out knowing it turned on her sister a look so ap- 
pealing that Anne wondered what had happened 
and stared blankly in return. 

‘‘ It’s fun dressing up an old house, isn’t it? ” 
Ellen said quickly. “Neil and I were both born 
in our house on the lake, but we haven’t been here 
for the summer for four years. Not since I was 
eleven, and now I’m housekeeper.” She tipped her 
smooth brown head on one side and looked at her 
brother with laughing eyes. “ Go on,” she urged. 
“ Wh^ I say I’m housekeeper I always expect to 
hear some unflattering remark.” 

“You — ^housekeeper!” growled Neil, but he 
looked at her with such evident pride that his words 
sounded like a compliment. “ You just wait till 
Cousin Jean gets here; she’ll show you.” 

“I hope she will; you’re too much for me to 
99 


THE SHELDON SIX 


manage/’ Ellen responded serenely, and turned to 
the girls again. “ We’ve just had a letter from our 
cousin, Jean Graham. She’s coming to spend 
the summer with us, and we’re too happy for 
words.” 

She was looking at Rose, but it was Anne who 
answered with a squeal of ecstasy. “ There can’t 
be two Jean Grahams! Is she tall and graceful 
and beautiful, with brown hair that has shining 
lights in it, and a lovely smile, and — and eyes that 
make you trust her right away? ” 

“ Whew ! Some poetry ! I guess it hits Cousin 
Jean right enough, though,” Neil answered with 
surprise in his voice. “ I never noticed the shining 
lights you mention, but I know she’s got good serv- 
iceable features, and — and she’s an all-round good 
sport. She can swim, row and skate ; and she rides 
like a breeze.” He ended with an unconscious sigh, 
as if his memories of his cousin were bound up with 
pleasures like these. 

“And — and does she write? ” Anne persisted, not 
daring to believe anything so delightful as this un- 
til the last link was tested. “ I don’t mean letters — 

I mean real writing — stories and ” 

“ Indeed she does,” answered Ellen. “ Stories 
and newspaper articles, and special articles for the 
magazines. One of the things she’s going to do 
this summer is a series of papers on New England 

lOO 


A MORNING CALL 

architecture, and she’ll get some of her material in 
the towns near here.” 

“ She’s the one then, of course,” Anne rejoiced. 
“ You see, we made our plans in such a hurry that 
I haven’t had a chance to let her know about it. 
But she’s my dearest and most wonderful friend, 
and to think of having her here for all sum- 
mer ” She stopped, partly for lack of words 

to express herself, and partly because at that mo- 
ment she happened to glance at her sister. 

“ You’re so thrilly, Anne,” Rose said with a hint 
of scorn in her voice, and then, because she caught 
a look of surprise in Ellen’s eyes, ‘‘ the rest of us 
don’t really know Miss Graham — ^we’ve seen her 
only once. She’d probably be surprised to know 
she’s Nan’s dearest and most wonderful friend.” 

“ I think she suspects it,” Anne laughed, ‘‘ and 
there’s nothing to keep me from liking her as much 
as I please as long as I don’t bother her about it. 
Father’ll be delighted to know what she’s going to 
write this summer. He loves to talk about houses 
and gardens.” 

“ Oh, do you suppose he’d talk to me about my 
garden? ” Ellen asked eagerly, and no one but Neil 
noticed that Rose’s face was still clouded as the 
two other girls chatted on about seed-planting and 
flowers. 

I’d call Father and Ellis,” Anne said pres- 

lOI 


THE SHELDON SIX 


ently, ‘‘ but they’ve been digging all the morning, 
and I hope Daddy’s gone in to lie down by this 
time.” She hesitated a moment and then asked a 
question shyly, as though she were afraid someone 
would make fun of her. “Ellen, would you — 
would you mind coming up into my room for a 
moment? There’s something I’d like to show 
3^ou.” 

“ If there are any secrets I want to be in on 
’em,” Neil said promptly. 

“ I can guess without going. Anne can’t be- 
lieve that anything so delicious and delightful can 
possibly happen, and she wants to show Ellen Miss 
Graham’s picture and find out if it really is the 
same person.” Rose’s face and voice were pleasant, 
but there was an undercurrent of feeling that 
puzzled the boy in the chair. 

“ Gk)od guess. Posy,” laughed Anne, giving her 
sister’s hair a gentle tweak as she passed her. “ I’d 
bring it down, Ellen, only ” 

“ Only she wants a chance to talk about her dear- 
est and most wonderful friend when I’m not 
around,” interrupted Rose, which was an equally 
good guess on her part. 

“Why don’t you like our Cousin Jean?” Neil 
asked unexpectedly when the two girls were out of 
hearing. “ We think she’s a corker.” 

“ I dare say she is. I don’t really know her,” 
102 


A MORNING CALL 


Rose answered with polite indifference. And then, 
“ Have you seen anything of Pete — Pete Silva — 
since I last saw you? ” 

“ Not a thing. To-morrow’s the day I told him 
to come. Ellen and I are wondering whether it’s 
going to be war or peace with that gang. Do you 
like boys? ” 

“ Why — why, I like big ones — that I can have 
fun with.” The abruptness of the question sur- 
prised Rose into answering with even more than 
her customary frankness. She was afraid he would 
understand that she liked best boys who were well 
and strong and could have good times — as, of 
course, she did. 

“ Not small dirty ones, you mean.” Whatever 
he may have felt, Neil didn’t show any signs of 
hurt feelings, which was an enormous relief. 
“ Ellen and I think it will be some fun this sum- 
mer trying to get hold of these youngsters. If only 
I weren’t tied to this old chair and could teach them 
how to play games! Jingo! I could hold ’em in 
my hand that way.” There was an eager longing 
in his voice, and his face grew sober. 

To Rose, liking above all things to be well and 
strong, came a sick shiver of sympathy. How 
could she possibly say anything comforting when, 
to her, it seemed so dreadful to be as he was? Be- 
fore she could speak, however, he had pulled him- 
103 


THE SHELDON SIX 

self out of his despondency with a shrug and a 
smile. 

“ I’ve got to wait a while for it, but the doctors 
say there’s a real chance for me to come out of this 
all right,” he went on quickly, “ and I’m banking 
on it. You can just believe I’m not going to be in 
a wheel-chair all my life. No, sir! ” 

“ Of course not,” Rose agreed, and began then 
and there dimly to realize that a spirit like this was 
bigger and more wonderful than strength of body. 

“ I have to keep busy while I’m tied, and the best 
thing I know is helping other people to get untied,” 
Neil continued, and then, at her look of mystifica- 
tion, laughed — that infectious chuckle of his which 
made her smile in spite of herself. “ I suppose 
you’ll think I’m batty if I say there are lots of ways 
of being tied besides my way.” 

Rose, not being used to boys who talked like this, 
looked at him blankly. “ I hadn’t thought you 
were batty,” she began doubtfully, “ but maybe 
I ” 

“ Maybe you will if I keep on,” laughed Neil, 
taking the words out of her mouth. “ Good! I 
like someone who comes back at me. But, anyway, 
what I said is true. Take those kids in Mill Hol- 
low, for instance: they’re tied because they haven’t 
enough to eat and wear, and because the little 
teaching they get at home is worse than none. 

104 


A MORNING CALL 


Some persons are tied because they can’t think of 
anything except themselves and what they want; 
and others because they are afraid to do anything 
the rich and stylish don’t do.” 

“ Whatever made you think of all that?” Rose 
put in bluntly. “ You sound as old as the hills, but 
you don’t look so.” 

“ I shall be eighteen this summer,” Neil an- 
swered, and then, “ Probably I shouldn’t have 
thought of ‘ all that,’ as you call it, if I hadn’t 
talked with Miss Eunice so much. We’ve had 
great old arguments. Anyway, when a fellow has 
to go ’round in a little private carriage he has loads 
of chances to think things out.” 

“ I should say so.” Rose tried to keep from 
seeming to pity him. If she were in his place she 
was sure she couldn’t bear to have people make a 
fuss over her. She wished with all her heart that 
the other girls would come back and that they could 
talk about something else. And then, without in 
the least wanting to or meaning to, she asked almost 
crossly, “ Do you — do you think everyone is tied in 
some way? How about me? ” 

“ Why, I suppose almost everyone is in one way 
or another.” Neil was staring across a green 
stretch of meadow and his eyes grew thoughtful. 
Then his gaze came back to Rose’s half -frowning 
face, and he smiled, a mischievous boyish grin which 
105 


THE SHELDON SIX 


made him look younger than he really was. “ I’m 
no mind-reader,” he said quickly. “ I don’t know 
you well enough to tell. Probably I couldn’t judge 
anyway. I guess it’s something you have to figure 
out for yourself, but, if you’re like what I was be- 
fore I was knocked out, you don’t stop having a 
good time long enough to think real thoughts.” 

“ I shall have time enough now,” Rose answered 
with some bitterness, “ to think bucketfuls of real 
thoughts. There won’t be any fun in this place to 
keep me from it.” 

“ Don’t be too sure. Little old Brookfield some- 
times hands out a good time when you least expect 
it. Ellen and I are counting on all sorts of larks. 
And we shall depend on you and your family to 
help us with our Mill Hollow Club which we’re 
boimd to have. You can do no end of things for 
us if you only will.” 

“ Well — perhaps — but you won’t find me much 
good.” It sounded weak and half-hearted, and 
Rose knew it. She was fiercely ashamed of herself 
without knowing just why. She wished other per- 
sons wouldn’t seem so good and cheerful and en- 
couraging when under the circumstances they had 
a perfect right to feel imhappy. She wished — and 
then she realized that Neil was gazing at her with 
his whimsical smile. 

“ Buck up ! The worst is yet to come,” he said 
io6 


A MORNING CALL 


solemnly. “ The girls are coming back and if they 
see you looking like that they’ll think I’ve been 
sticking pins in you.” 

“ You have,” Rose averred, “ big, sharp ones. 
Aren’t you ashamed to treat ” 

“ What’s Neil been doing now? ” demanded 
Ellen, coming out on the porch. “ I never leave 
him that he doesn’t get into some mischief.” She 
went down the steps and stood beside her brother. 
Anne, watching, saw a mothering look in the girl’s 
lovely eyes, and felt sure that Ellen would be a 
friend worth winning. 

“ I haven’t done a thing, upon my word,” as- 
serted Neil, with his most innocent, small-boy ex- 
pression. ‘‘ Say, Ellen, there comes Hegan — we 
must go. Have you ? ” 

“ No, I haven’t, but I will now,” interrupted his 
sister. “ We’re going to have the use of Miss 
Dean’s automobile this afternoon, and we’d like to 
have you go with us, Anne and Rose.” 

“ Lovely! I’m wild about motoring and I never 
get enough.” Rose turned to her sister with en- 
treaty. “ Do say yes, Nan; I want to go so much.” 

Shall we surely be home in time to get sup- 
per? ” Anne asked. “ I’d love to go, but you see 
until EfBe comes I’m chief cook. And Daddy and 
Ellis are so hungry after garden work I should 
hate to keep them waiting.” 

107 


THE SHELDON SIX 


“ Surely we’ll get home in good season,” prom- 
ised Neil. “ We eat, too. It’ll be fine and dandy 
to show you both some of the beauty spots. We’ll 
call for you at two o’clock if that won’t be too 
early.” 

Anne flew to the kitchen as soon as the new 
friends had said farewell, but Rose went slowly up- 
stairs. For her a glamor had come over the morn- 
ing; perhaps, after all, she should have some good 
times in Brookfield. Ellen was certainly sweet and 
she wasn’t the namby-pamby kind either. She 
liked Neil, too. He was different from any boy 
she had ever known, but he had a lot of fun in him 
even though he did talk in unexpected ways about 
doing things for others. How queer that they 
should be cousins to Anne’s Miss Graham. “ I 
don’t care; I’m not going to let her spoil my sum- 
mer,” she said to herself defiantly, and then walked 
over to the mirror to see if the dress she was wearing 
looked fresh enough for afternoon. 

“ My hair looks rather mussy,” she decided. 
“And I must hunt up a fresh collar and cuffs. I 
don’t like myself in this dress very well. I’d wear 
my blue skirt if I could only get that awful spot 
out of it.” She glanced at the clock; there would 
be time to try, anyway. A moment later she was 
busily at work. 


io8 


CHAPTER VII 


THE OBTRUSIVE TOILET-TABLE 

Sometime afterwards, when Susan shouted 
that “ dinner was just putting on the table,’’ Rose 
was still impatiently scrubbing away at the remains 
of the spot which at the present stage did not look 
altogether promising. 

“ I think this time it will dry out all right,” she 
said to Connie, who had strolled into the room. 
“And if it doesn’t I’m not going to let a little thing 
like a spot worry me. You don’t see any gray 
hairs yet, do you? ” 

For the moment she was her own gay, care-free 
self again, and Connie looked at her approvingly. 
She was always trying to get it straight in her mind 
whether she was fonder of Anne and prouder of 
Rose or just the other way about. Usually she 
ended by deciding that she was both prouder and 
fonder of Anne, but, after all, there was something 
about Rose 

“ I hadn’t a snip of an idea I’d taken so long 
about it,” Rose said, looking a little dazed at the 
flight of time. “ Why, I must have been an hour,” 
109 


THE SHELDON SIX 


“ I supposed you’d been helping Anne get din- 
ner,” Connie remarked disturbingly, as they went 
down-stairs together. 

“ What’s the matter with your helping? ” Rose 
demanded. “ You always seem to be able to think 
up things for others to do.” 

“ I’ve been working in the garden ever since 
breakfast.” Connie’s air of conscious virtue was 
distinctly irritating. 

Rose’s manner held a remnant of the irritation as 
she walked into the dining-room. Somehow it 
seemed to her Anne’s own fault that there had been 
no one to help her. “ Why are we having dinner 
earlier, and why didn’t you call me? ” she asked in 
an aggrieved tone as Anne set the last dish on the 
table. 

“ Well, if I’m going to be ready at two I had 
to have it early. And it’s an awful bother to chase 
’round the house and perhaps not find anyone will- 
ing to do anything.” Anne was warm and tired, 
and her voice was a little plaintive. “ There’ll be 
the dishes to wash, though, and you can help me 
hustle those. Oh, I forgot ; you weren’t to be asked 
to wash any more dishes to-day, were you? I’m 
wild to see what you’ve been doing; does it look 
pretty? ” 

Rose stared at her blankly. “ N-not much 
change yet,” she stammered, almost choking in her 
no 


THE OBTRUSIVE TOILET-TABLE 


sudden realization that she had completely for- 
gotten what she had agreed to do in Effie’s room. 
It flashed into her mind that she had frequently said 
to the others, “A promise is a promise, you know,” 
and had held them strictly thereto. But this seemed 
to her a different thing, and, now that they had 
promised to go with Ellen and Neil, Anne surely 
wouldn’t expect her to keep to the earlier agree- 
ment. Anyway good old Effie would be so glad 
to get back to the family she wouldn’t mind about 
furnishings. Rose tried to ignore the troublesome 
thoughts which crowded into her mind, and to listen 
to what Father was saying about gardens. 

“ Ellis and I were going to drive over to Mr. 
Moody’s farm,” he went on, “ but I believe we won’t 
go until to-morrow if you and Rose are to be away 
this afternoon. Nan. I’m glad you are getting ac- 
quainted with those young people. I hear fine 
things about them from Miss Dean.” 

Rose’s unruly mind jumped at this. That set- 
tled it. Father wanted them to go, so, of course, 
she couldn’t back out. Perhaps she’d have time 
to slide a few things into the room while Anne was 
washing dishes and getting dressed. 

“ Excuse me, please,” she was saying the next 
moment, without waiting for her dessert or even to 
finish the first part of her dinner. She hurried up- 
stairs, slipped into her working-dress, and then took 

III 


THE SHELDON SIX 


a comprehensive survey of Effie’s room. There 
was a bed, not made; an old-fashioned bureau on 
one side of the room, and a stand with bowl and 
pitcher on the other; the rocker Anne had provided 
was the only chair. There were shades, but no cur- 
tains at the windows, and the bare floor was painted 
an unattractive yellow-brown. 

“Rugs!” said Rose aloud, “and a table and 
more chairs.” She ran back to the storeroom, de- 
ciding as she went that she would not give that 
darling toilet-table to Efiie, because she never 
should have the face to ask it back again. In the 
bottom of her mind as she looked about her was a 
picture not of Effle’s room, but of her own as she 
might make it, and she spent more time than she 
meant to use in choosing rugs, because she wanted 
to be sure to save out those that would suit her 
plans. At last she found some braided ones in 
shades of brown and yellow with touches of black, 
and when she had spread three of these on the floor, 
Effie’s room at once took on a homelike air. 

“ It looks so big. I’ve simply got to have a table 
and, at least, two more chairs,” she said to herself, 
and by now the picture of what this room might 
become was crowding everything else out of her 
mind. “ I wish I could find something for sash- 
curtains; there are rods all ready for them.” 

As she hurried back to the storeroom again she 

II2 


THE OBTRUSIVE TOILET-TABLE 


could hear Anne coming up-stairs, and she won- 
dered if it could be possible that the dishes were 
done, and her sister ready to change her dress. 

Such a collection of crippled furniture ! And yet, 
even her slight knowledge made Rose realize that it 
was good furniture which might be repaired. There 
were chairs that needed to be re-seated; a chair with 
a broken leg carefully tied on; one with a broken 
back. After what seemed to her an unending 
search Rose found two that would do and set them 
in the doorway. Now for a table! There was a 
large one which would not suit at all; a very small 
one, scarcely big enough for any use. What she 
wanted was a table of moderate size with a drawer. 
As if responding to roll-call, the cherished toilet- 
table poked an obtrusive corner into her as she went 
across the room. 

“ Ouch! That hurt! You act as if you’d like to 
get out of here, but I want you somewhere else.” 
At sight of herself in the mirror she involuntarily 
put up her hand to brush back her hair, thereby 
adding another streak to those already on her face. 
“ It’ll take me ages to get ready; I wonder what 
time it is, anyway.” 

At that instant an automobile horn tooted, and 
she heard Anne calling. “ Rose! Rose! They’ve 
come. They’re a few minutes early, but I’m ready. 
Whj^ where are you? ” 

113 


THE SHELDON SIX 


“ Storeroom,” snapped Rose, and as Anne ap- 
peared in the doorway, I’m not going. I can’t 
get that old ix)om you’re so fussy about fixed right, 
but you needn’t tell ’em that.” 

“ I thought you finished it this morning. Why 
didn’t you let it go with what you did then? I 
shouldn’t have made any fuss. And how am I 
going to explain it to Ellen and Neil? ” 

“ Explain — ^nothing.” Rose’s voice was as cross 
as if Anne were responsible for all her troubles. 
“Just say I’m sorry ” — she swallowed hard — 
“ I’m sorry I can’t go, but it’s impossible.” She 
dropped down on the heap of rugs, and sat there 
hugging her knees. 

Anne’s blue eyes grew troubled. She was tired, 
she had been anticipating the pleasure ahead of her 
with real delight, and at least a part of her fun 
would be spoiled if she left Rose at home feeling 
like this. “ Probably they wouldn’t mind waiting a 

little, and you’re so quick about getting ready ” 

she began with wistful eagerness. 

“Nothing doing,” interrupted Rose; “you got 
me into this. I’m doing it for you and I’m going 
to put it through.” 

Anne took three steps away from her, then 
turned. “ You make me tired,” she said as if free- 
ing a long pent-up impulse. “ You talk all the 
time about doing things for me, and I can’t see why 

1 14 


THE OBTRUSIVE TOILET-TABLE 


it isn’t just as much your place to do part of the 
housework as it is mine. I wish you’d play fair.” 
Her eyes sparkled with indignation, and a faint 
color rose in her cheeks; she looked as if she were 
about to say more, but, instead, she w^heeled about 
and left the room. A moment later Rose heard 
the front door shut. 

“ She must have banged it — a little, anyway — or 
I shouldn’t have heard it,” was her comment. 
Somehow it cleared the situation extraordinarily for 
Anne, the peaceful and polite one of the family, to 
be angry. Rose hugged her knees more tightly and 
considered the question for a moment. She had 
always thought it rather a specialty of hers to be a 
good sport and play fair, and it annoyed her to be 
accused of the opposite. And yet, with her usual 
honesty, she admitted there might be some truth in 
it. Anyway, Anne would probably be sorry for 
what she had said and take it all back when she 
came home. 

“ Well, I shan’t get anyvdiere by sitting here 
and thinking about it,” she concluded after a while, 
jumping up and surveying the disorderly store- 
room with a questioning glance. “ What was I 
doing, anyway, when Nan went for me? Oh, I 
know, hunting for a table.” 

She resumed her search, resolutely turning her 
back on the importunate toilet-table which so 

115 


THE SHELDON SIX 

evidently yearned to be moved to a place more 
fit. 

“ Nan couldn’t understand why I’d taken so 
much time over this,” she meditated, as she bumped 
her head under the eaves only to find that the table 
she had spied there was deceptively propping a leg- 
less corner against the wall. “ Of course she didn’t 
suspect that I hardly thought of Effie until after 
dinner. Didn’t Neil say that some persons are tied 
to thinking about themselves and what they want? 
That’s where he hit little me all right.” Her mind 
wrestled with this subject while she pursued her 
unavailing quest. After all, if you wanted things 
at all your way, you just had to think about 
yourself. Everyone did, and you couldn’t ex- 
pect — 

A slight noise made her turn to see Susan coming 
into the room, looking as though her world were go- 
ing very wrong. 

“ Well, what’s the matter with you? ” Rose de- 
manded. “ You look like a thunder-cloud.” 

“ They took Connie off in the auto. There isn’t 
anyone to play with me.” 

“ Where’s Jimsey? ” 

“ He went with — with the man that works here. 
They’re going to bring back Effie and darling Rex. 
You knew ’bout that.” 

“ With Ezra, you mean. I remember now. 

ii6 


THE OBTRUSIVE TOILET-TABLE 

They won’t be back for some time. Why don’t you 
help Daddy and Ellis? ” 

“Why don’t you? You ain’t doing anything 
but — but make a clutter here.” 

“ I’m hunting for a table for Effie’s room,” Rose 
answered sharply. “ And I can do it better if 
you’ll go down-stairs.” 

“ Why, I’ll help you.” Susan’s deep gloom 
lifted a little. She looked around her with bright, 
darting glances. “ Why, here’s a table — a darling 
one with little drawers. EfBe’ll love it. I’ll help 
you lift it.” She was dragging at the beloved 
toilet-table before she had finished speaking. 

“ Susan ! You let that alone and go away from 
here ! ” Rose removed her young sister with un- 
gentle hands, lifting her and setting her down 
forcibly. 

“O — oh! I think this is a dreadful place. I 
want to go back to Melford,” wailed Susan, cast- 
ing herself down on the floor. “Not any little girls 
and boys here — it’s all dark at night, too — and — 
and hens run at you.” 

“ Susan Sheldon, don’t be a baby ! Get up ; your 
dress will be covered with dust.” To be set upon 
her feet with a jerk did not please Susan and, 
though she stopped crying, she glared at her sister. 

“ You made my arm hurt. Some day you’ll be 
sorry for that. Rose Sheldon. I’m going to find 
117 


THE SHELDON SIX 


Daddy.” Susan went half-way to the door, then 
turned. “ I guess you’d miss me ’fi should run 
away,” she said sulkily. 

“ Don’t run — walk. Going to take a trunk with 
you? ” Rose was diving under the eaves again, 
hut her words came back teasingly and stirred 
Susan to naughtiness. She lingered a moment, ir- 
resolute, then slid bumpily down the front stairs. 

Emerging from another unsuccessful search. 
Rose decided that, after all, a table wouldn’t be 
necessary, and she took the two chairs she had se- 
lected into Effie’s room. Then she washed her 
hands and made the bed. She found the sheets and 
pillow-cases in the bottom drawer of the bureau, 
and she prided herself on remembering ever since 
morning that Nan had told her they were there. 
When she went back to shut the drawer it stuck, 
and in jerking it she loosened what she had sup- 
posed the bottom of the bureau, but which proved 
to be a shallow drawer. 

What luck! Here were sash-curtains — all 
clean and ready! Of course Nan had not dis- 
covered this drawer and she would be surprised. 
Curtains certainly did give a homelike air, she con- 
ceded, when she had run them on the rods and ad- 
justed the fullness with great care. Now the room 
did not look so large and empty, and she was al- 
most able to forget the space between the win- 
118 


THE OBTRUSIVE TOILET-TABLE 


dows where a table of the right size would go so 
nicely. 

“ Oh, Rose! Rose! ” It was Father’s voice and 
she could hear him coming along the hall. 

“ Come in, Daddy.” She went to meet him and 
ushered him into the room with a hand tucked under 
his arm. ‘‘ Haven’t I made this look a great deal 
better? Don’t you think Effie will like it? ” 

“ I should say she would,” Mr. Sheldon 
answered, with the gratifying enthusiasm which so 
rewarded his daughters. “Was this what you 
stayed at home to do? ” He was looking at her 
now with a slightly puzzled expression. “ I fan- 
cied Anne was disapproving something or some- 
body when she told me you were not going.” 

Rose laughed. “ She was. And ‘ disapproving ’ 
is a — a gentle word for what she was thinking 
about me. I should have felt flat as a pancake if it 
hadn’t done me so much good to see Anne get cross 
for once. Oh, Daddy, I’m just horrid sometimes.” 
There was no laughter in her eyes now, and she 
snuggled against her father in a way unusual for 
her. 

“ We’re all horrid once in a while,” he comforted, 
with his arm around her. “ What was your special 
badness this time? ” 

Rose lifted her head. “ I promised, quite early 
this morning, that if I could be let off from dish- 

119 


THE SHELDON SIX 


washing, and if I could do things all my own way — 
you see I had to be — to be paid beforehand” — 
her voice reflected the scorn which in the present 
virtuous moment she felt for herself — “ well, I said 
I’d make this room look homelike for Efiie.” 

“And you have,” said Father. “ It seems to me 
very cosy.” 

“ Yes, but I’ve done all this since dinner, and 
most of it after Anne went away. I spent the 
whole morning, except when the Ramsays were 
here, thinking about my own room and hunting up 
things to make it pretty. Just taking care of my- 
self, you see.” Rose paused and gazed at her father 
with some anxiety. “ Daddy, do you suppose I’m 
going to be like that — that Aunt Harriet? I never 
meant to take any notice of what you wrote, but, 
of course, I couldn’t help it.” 

Father threw baek his head and laughed. 
“ That was rather mean of me, wasn’t it? My 
mother used to tell us about her when we were 
greedy, and the way you spoke about the room re- 
minded me of it. No, I don’t think you’ll be like 
her, particularly since you are warned beforehand.” 

“ I might have her for an example of what not to 
be,” Rose said soberly. “ A sort of sign-post. 
‘ Warning! Thinking too much about oneself leads 
to Aunt-Harrietism! ’ ” 

“ It wouldn’t be fair to remember her only by 
120 


THE OBTRUSIVE TOILET-TABLE 

that,” Mr, Sheldon hastened to say, “ We children 
thought she was as brave as a lion. We used to 
like to hear Mother tell how she saved several chil- 
dren from a burning house; and when there was an 
epidemic in the little town where she lived she for- 
got herself completely. There’s another sort of 
‘Aunt-Harrietism,’ you see.” 

“ I should say so.” Rose changed suddenly in 
her estimation of her ancestress, and her eyes 
sparkled. “ I like her. But, Daddy, don’t you 
think it’s loads easier to do brave things like that 
than to keep at all the little poky uninteresting 
ones? ” 

“ Probably — for most of us. I believe intensely, 
though. Posy, that the little things count for just 
as much in the end, even if it does seem that no one 
takes any particular notice of the way we do them. 
Just the steady building up of one’s house of life is 
the test for us all, and. Posy-chicken, the founda- 
tion stones are the most important.” 

“ I know they are,” murmured Rose. When her 
father talked like this she was comforted and in- 
spired beyond measure, but she never could find 
words to tell him so. She was sure, however, that 
in some mysterious way he always knew what she 
was feeling. 

“ I take it that you don’t admire particularly that 
girl who thought about herself all the morning and 

121 


THE SHELDON SIX 


then had to break an engagement in order to keep 
a promise,” her father went on unexpectedly. 

“ I do not,” Rose answered with prompt decision. 
“ I haven’t the slightest use for her.” 

“ Don’t be too severe or I shall have to stand up 
for her. I must confess I like the spirit she has 
shown in putting this through.” He glanced about 
the neat room approvingly. “Well, I don’t see 
that there is anything more for me to say. You 
and Anne usually take the words out of my mouth 
and leave me no chance to discipline you. I’m such 
a well-meaning parent, too; it seems a pity I can’t 
do more for my children.” 

“ If you feel that way about it you might put me 
in the corner ” began Rose, but was inter- 

rupted by a clear whistle several times repeated. 

“ That’s Ellis,” Mr. Sheldon went on hurriedly. 
“ Mr. Becker, the father of those twins who brought 
you a lunch, has driven over in his car and he wants 
to take Ellis and me to see a farm not far from here. 
I said I’d tell you so that you could have an eye to 
the house and the children.” 

“Children!” repeated Rose blankly. “I 
thought ” 

“ He brought the twins with him and they will 
play with Susan while we are gone. Posy, I think 
this room is a great success.” His gaze took it all 
in once more. “ Couldn’t you — couldn’t you find — 
122 


THE OBTRUSIVE TOILET-TABLE 


but there, I don’t believe anything more is neces- 
sary.” 

“ What is it you mean, Daddy? If it’s anything 
in the house I’ll hunt for it.” At the moment Rose 
felt that the perfecting of this room meant a great 
deal to her, and she awaited her father’s answer with 
zealous interest. 

“ I was just thinking,” he admitted, “ that the 
space between the windows looks empty. Perhaps 

a table ” Ellis’ whistle came again more 

sharply. “ I must hurry, dear. Don’t try to do 
any more. It looks well enough. Now if there’s 

a clean spot on your face ” he gazed at her 

critically, planted a kiss on the top of her golden 
head and departed. 

That settles it,” Rose said to herself, though the 
zeal of the moment before was fast fading. She 
felt herself something of a martyr as she pushed 
and dragged the precious toilet-table along the hall 
and into the space between the windows. As she 
rubbed it with an oily duster she found herself wish- 
ing that she had mentioned to Anne or Connie how 
much she wanted this particular table. It was 
rather hard not to have anyone appreciate her sacri- 
fice. 

“ Oh, fudge!” she said crossly, and without an- 
other look at this room went back to the storeroom 
where reigned disorder of her own making. She 
123 


THE SHELDON SIX 

was tired, and rather limp and forlorn, but it 
wouldn’t be the square thing, of course, to leave a 
room looking like this. 

A half hour later she decided with a weary sigh 
that it was as orderly as she could make it, and she 
turned toward her own room feeling that a bath and 
clean clothes were priceless luxuries. She looked 
out of her window to see what Susan and the twins 
were doing, but no one was in sight. 

“ I’ll go down the minute I get dressed and take 
out some cookies to them,” she planned. Then she 
started toward the bath-room to wash her face first 
of all. Half-way there she stopped, startled by 
piercing shrieks. She must find those children and 
tell them not to make such a noise — ^what could they 
be doing? Suddenly she realized that it was some- 
thing more than noise — there was actual fright be- 
hind the cries, and she ran swiftly down-stairs. 


124 


CHAPTER VIII 


“ding! dong! bell!’’ 

When Rose opened the back door she found 
herself at once in the midst of the excitement, for 
Billy Becker was running toward the house, his 
eyes wide with fright and his face very pale. Im- 
mediately after him Dilly popped into view scream- 
ing at the top of her voice. 

Rose’s heart stopped for a beat, then thumped 
madly. What had happened? Where was Susan? 

Billy’s look of fear lightened at sight of Rose, 
and he made an obvious effort to speak with no re- 
sult. Then, in an anguished voice, he sang, “ Ding! 
Dong! Bell! Susan’s in the well! ” 

One of Dilly’s wildest cries stopped in its be- 
ginning. “ Billy Becker, don’t you thing about 
thith,” she corrected; “ it’th a thad time.” Then 
she went on screaming. 

“ Where’s Susan? ” demanded Rose, shaking her 
with a vigorous hand. “ Stop your noise, and tell 
me where Susan is.” 

“ Down the well,” Dilly answered sulkily. 

125 


THE SHELDON SIX 


“ ’Twathn’t my fault. How could I tell Thuthan 
wath going to thtep on that board when I pulled 
it?” 

‘‘ C-c-come,” gasped Billy, catching hold of 
Rose’s hand. 

They ran a short distance, which seemed to Rose 
a long one, until they came to a clump of shrubbery 
she had not noticed before. Inside it, almost hid- 
den by a thick growth of grass and weeds, was an 
unused well which the children had unfortunately 
discovered. 

“ They wath boardth on top of it and big rockth, 
and Thuthan wanted to find out what wath inthide,” 
explained Dilly. “ We tried to make her thtop.” 

Rose scarcely heard, scarcely dared to breathe, 
for her whole attention was absorbed by the boards 
which the children had pulled away, and which now 
hung over the edge ready to slide in without warn- 
ing. She could not tell what magic had kept the 
least secure one from following Susan in her fall, 
and at first glance it seemed impossible to touch 
either without imperilling the others. 

“ Billy, you take hold of the end of that board — 
don’t pull — just hold it whatever happens,” she 
said out of a dry throat. “ And, Dilly, you do the 
same with this one. Oh, please, hold tight. If I 
can’t do this something dreadful may happen.” 

Dilly stared at her. “ Why don’t you call 

126 


" DING! DONG! BELL ! " 


** Sh-shut up!” said Billy, “and t-t-take hold, 
I-if you 1-let go I’ll s-s-smack you.” 

Slowly, with the utmost caution, Rose pulled 
into security the board that seemed most dangerous, 
and when it was done felt for one sick moment that 
she could not move again. 

“ D-Dilly’s b-board could g-go next,” suggested 
Billy, who had been studying the situation, and 
Rose, helped into action, moved around to grasp 
the end Dilly had been holding. 

“You keep still somewhere,” said Rose, and in 
their absorption neither she nor Billy noticed that 
Dilly withdrew herself stealthily, and a moment 
later ran off as fast as her legs could carry her. 

With the second board out of the way that dan- 
ger was over. Billy pulled the third one into 
safety, while Rose threw herself flat on the ground 
and peered into the dark depths of the well. 
“Susan!” she called, and again, “Susan!” but 
there was no answering sound. The sharp realiza- 
tion came to her that there was no one to help; 
everything depended on her. 

“ L-ladder,” crooned Billy’s comforting stammer 
close to her ear. “ I s-saw one.” He was off like 
a shot with Rose following. 

“ It’s too big and heavy,” gasped Rose, when 
they had carried the ladder back to the well. “ I — 
I don’t dare to try to let it down there for fear of 
127 


THE SHELDON SIX^ 

hitting Susan. I’ll have to climb down myself. 
Help me find a rope, Billy.” 

Again Billy was off like a flash, singing some- 
thing about rope and shed as if he knew where 
things were likely to be kept in the country. Rose 
went down on the ground again, and felt around 
inside the well to see if there were projecting stones, 
or anything which she could grasp in going down. 
“ Susan, it’s Rose,” she called again. “ I’m com- 
ing down to get you.” As before, there was no re- 
sponse, and Rose got up with a shudder and went 
to meet Billy who was returning with a coil of 
rope. 

“We’ll put it around she began, and 

turned to look for a tree to which it might be at- 
tached. Billy’s eyes followed hers, and then they 
stared at each other blankly. There was no tree 
near, and nothing else that would be strong enough 
for the purpose. 

“ I was going to put it ’round my waist while I 
climbed down,” Rose said with a quaver in her voice, 
“ but it doesn’t matter.” 

“ T-two c-can hold it,” stammered Billy, and for 
the first time realized that his sister had disappeared. 
“ Wh-wh-where’s D-D-Dilly? ” he gasped, with a 
horrified stare at the well. “ In th-there? ” 

“ She’s run off somewhere,” Rose answered im- 
patiently. “ Never mind about the rope. You 
128 


DING! DONG! BELL! 


might hold it as hard as you can, Billy — if I slip 
perhaps it will help to keep me from falling.” 

“ I’ll t-tell Ma on th-that Dilly,” Billy muttered, 
his excitement giving him unusual ease of expres- 
sion. “ I’m always saying I w-will — ^and I n-never 
do — b-b-but th-this time ” 

“ Don’t bother about that,” said Rose, who by 
now had knotted the cord about her waist. 

Billy took hold of the other end with a do-or-die 
expression in his eyes; then lay flat on his back, dig- 
ging his heels into the ground. 

“ Drop the rope if I fall and pull you,” ordered 
Rose, feeling with her foot for a resting-place in the 
rocky wall of the well. There was a murmur from 
Billy whose face was upturned to the sky and who 
was trying with all his might to hold the rope just 
right. He was strong in the decision that he should 
not let go until he was pulled to the very edge. 

After what seemed to her an age Rose’s head dis- 
appeared below the top of the well, and presently 
she found herself, with arms painfully outstretched 
and the most insecure of toe-holds, clinging for a 
last despairing moment to the top edge, and hating 
to let go. At last she loosed the grip of one hand 
and felt around until she touched a projecting rock 
about at the level of her neck; then she managed to 
bring the other hand down to a place near the first 
one. After that one foot cautiously hunted a rest- 
129 


THE SHELDON SIX 

ing-place a little farther down. When she needed 
so much to hurry this slow progress was almost un- 
bearable, but Rose held herself rigidly to it. The 
slight pressure of the rope around her waist gave 
her comfort, though she perfectly realized that Billy 
would have to let go if she started to fall. 

She must have been about half-way down when 
panic seized her. Suppose she should fall now on 
top of Susan! Why hadn’t she thought of that 
danger before? This was a foolhardy thing she 
was trying to do. She should have called the neigh- 
bors and they could have helped with the ladder. 
Her mind ran through a dozen ways, all better than 
the one she was trying. One hand slipped a little 
and she gripped the projecting bit of rock fiercely, 
and realized for the first time how sore and stiff her 
fingers were. 

She forgot them directly, however, because it 
flashed through her mind that the very last time 
she and Susan had been together — ^was it really this 
same afternoon? — she had been cross to Susan and 
had teased her. She should never be able to forget 
that if — if Susan — she forced the dreadful thought 
out of her mind only to have its place taken by an- 
other. Hanging there, rigid with the fear that this 
was a reckless and dangerous attempt, she saw 
clearly, for the first time in her life, that she had al- 
ways been trying to make her small world run to 
130 


*'DING! DONG! BELL!’^ 


suit her; that she had scarcely ever tried willingly 
to adapt herself to the ways of others. 

“ Don’t let me remember these things now,” came 
the instant plea. “ Let me get to Susan. I must 
take care of Susan.” And then, mechanically, she 
began to feel about with one foot, and the tension 
of the last moment relaxed. 

It was just after this, when she was trying to 
force her aching hand to let go and find another 
place to grip, that she felt the rope tighten strongly, 
and, at once, almost a sense of security took pos- 
session of her. Then a voice, a grown-up voice, 
which she seemed to know, but could not recognize, 
spoke to her from above. 

‘‘ You’re all right now,” the voice said comfort- 
ingly. Billy and I can hold you.” 

For an instant Rose shook all over and clung 
tightly with toes and fingers; then without a word 
she began again to feel her way downward. An 
increasingly painful way it was, for she had scraped 
her cheek and chin against the rocks, and her hands 
hurt more and more. Nothing mattered, though, 
she told herself, if she did not fall on Susan. 

A moment later a bit of rock, dislodged by her 
groping foot, went rattling down to the bottom of 
the well, which, if Rose could judge by the sound, 
was not far away. Instantly she was afraid that 
it might hit Susan, and just then her sister’s voice, 

131 


THE SHELDON SIX 


whimpering and frightened, startled her. “ Ouch ! ” 
it said. “ Dilly Becker, you stop! ” 

“ Susan! ” she called softly. “ Susan, it’s Rose. 
You’re all right now.” She wanted desperately to 
hurry — to look down — but dared to attempt neither. 
All she could do was to continue her slow progress : 
one aching hand seeking a place to grip, and then 
the other ; then a foot, which hated to leave security 
and groped painfully for a point of support. “ I’m 
almost there, Susan,” she said, and hoped it was 
true. 

There was a faint rustling beneath her as if Susan 
were trying to move around. Then the plaintive 
voice again, “ I — I don’t like it here — I want 
Daddy.” 

“Just a minute and I’ll take care of you. I have 
to go slowly and ” 

“ If you don’t be careful you’ll put your foot in 
my face,” interrupted Susan petulantly. “ I 
don’t see why you keep waving it ’wound like that.” 

That was so like her small sister that Rose 
laughed, but for once felt more like crying. Then 
she put her foot down with exceeding care and 
found that she could stand. 

“ I’m down, Billy,” she called exultantly, and 
then she went down on her knees beside Susan. 
“ Let me feel your arms and legs, Susan. Where 
does anything hurt?” 


132 


DING! DONG! BELL!^^ 

Here,” answered Susan, guiding her sister’s 
hand to her cheek and then to the back of her head. 
“ Nothing hurts much, and there isn’t anything the 
matter with my arms and legs,” she went on, as 
Rose felt of her anxiously; “ and I’m not going to 
cwy.” 

“ Of course you’re not. We’re going to get you 
out of here,” promised Rose, wondering how it was 
to be done, and just then that same comforting 
voice from above answered her unspoken question. 

“ I’m going to put the ladder down now, and you 
can guide it when it gets within reach.” 

To Rose, looking upward toward the bright sky, 
the face peering over the edge of the well was 
blurred and unrecognizable, but the voice was a 
woman’s voice. “ Oh, do you think you can hold 
that ladder? ” she cried involuntarily. “ It’s so 
heavy.” 

“And I’m so strong,” the voice exulted. “ You 
wait and see how gently it will come down.” 

Rose could not help feeling confidence in the 
promise, though she caught her breath quickly as 
the ladder slid over the edge and tipped downward. 
“ I have it,” she called a moment later. “ Now if 
I can only find a place where it will be firm.” 

“Huh! I can climb that ladder,” said Susan, 
who was on her feet now, and had regained in a 
degree her unconquerable spirit. “ Let me twy.” 

133 


THE SHELDON SIX 


She took a step forward as she spoke and swayed 
dizzily against her sister. “ Phwee ! she remarked 
in a surprised voice, “ my head feels all tippy.” 

“ You don’t expect to fall down a well and not 
feel something, do you? ” questioned Rose, who by 
this time had steadied the ladder. “ Now I’m go- 
ing to put this rope ’round your waist, and then 
I’ll go’ up just behind you.” 

“ That’s good planning,” said the voice from 
above. “ I’ll keep it firm up here. Only — ^are you 
sure you feel quite steady. Miss Rose? ” 

“ I’m all right,” answered Rose, and did not 
know until she took her first step on the ladder that 
her feet felt as if they did not belong to her and her 
hands were shaking. It was only by using all the 
will-power she possessed that she made herself 
mount step by step after Susan, whose courage 
grew sadly less as she ascended. 

“ I don’t like this — I — I want to go back — I’m 
’fwaid I’m — I’m going to 1-let go my hands,” she 
whimpered when they were about half-way up. 
She was beginning to sway, and her whole body 
shook. 

Rose pressed her closely from behind and from 
sheer fright spoke sternly. “Don’t you dare let 
go, Susan Sheldon ! Do you want to make us both 
fall? ” 

“Not many more steps now; she’s coming 

134 


'^DING! DONG! BELL!^^ 


straight ahead,” encouraged the voice from above 
calmly. “ Count them, Susan, as you come; if 
there are not more than ten I’ll give you something 
I’ve got in my pocket.” 

“ One,” said Susan in a quavering voice, and took 
a fresh start. Rose breathed a sigh of relief and 
relaxed the tightness of her grip. For a moment 
she had been so frightened she had not felt the 
misery of her bruised hands. 

“ Eight! That isn’t so much as ten, is it? ” de- 
manded Susan, as somebody took hold of her 
strongly and set her on solid ground. Rose, just 
behind her, was grateful for the supporting hand 
that gripped her arm and helped her to step around 
the side of the ladder. For the first moment she 
was almost blinded by the brightness of the world, 
then she realized that she was looking into the kind, 
anxious face of Miss Eunice Dean. 

“ Oh, was it you — all the time? ” she faltered, 
perfectly aware how foolish a question it was, yet 
quite unable to avoid asking it. And then her 
shaky knees gave way, and she sat down suddenly 
and felt, to her horror, that if anyone spoke to her 
she should cry. She bent her head and stared 
steadily at the ground and swallowed hard; she 
simply couldn’t stand weepy girls. 

“ Put your hand in my pocket, Susan,” said 
Miss Dean, quite as if nothing unusual had hap- 

135 


THE SHELDON SIX 

pened, “ and pull out the paper-bag you’ll find 
there.” 

Susan put out her hand, then drew it back. 
“ Anything in the bag? ” she demanded with sus- 
picion in her tone. Susan never let anyone play a 
trick on her if she could help it. At Miss Dean’s 
nod her searching fingers plunged into the deep 
pocket, and her face brightened as she peered into 
the bag. “ Gum-dwops! ” she exulted. “ Now I 
don’t care if I did get bumped.” 

She turned to Dilly and Billy, and then her eyes 
found her sister and she went down on her knees 
beside her. “ You came down for me, didn’t you, 
and bwinged me up? ” she said in her sweetest 
voice. “Have a gum-dwop; it’ll make you feel 
better.” 

“ Thuck it and then you can’t cry,” advised Dilly, 
who usually discovered just what persons least 
wanted her to know. 

Billy turned on her suddenly. “ D-d-don’t 
b-bother her,” he said. “ Sh-she’s a g-g-good 
sport.” 

“ Billy Becker, where did you learn thuch a 
word? Rothe ith not.” 

“ Oh, I hope I am,” Rose protested. “ And, 
Billy, you’re a good one, too, and I’m never going 
to forget it.” Somehow going down into the well 
had changed the world for her. Billy’s red head 
136 


BING! DONG! BELL! 

was a beautiful sight; Miss Dean seemed almost an 
old friend; even Dilly 

“ I think you didn’t ought to forget me,” hinted 
Dilly, herself, with an injured air. “ I thuppothe 
I might have a gum-drop; I brought the biggetht 
help.” 

“ D-D-Dilly! ” said her brother helplessly, turn- 
ing so red his freckles hardly showed. 

“ You needn’t Dilly me. Everyone thendth for 
Mith Dean when they’re in trouble. Mother 
thayth tho. I’m thurprithed, Billy Becker, you 
didn’t have thenth enough to ” 

“ My goodness, we’re forgetting all about 
bumps,” interrupted Miss Dean. “ And Susan’s 
cheek is scratched, and there’s a bruise on Rose’s 
chin. Let’s go into the house and find some nice 
comfy stuff to put on them.” 

“ My hands are the worst of my hurts,” Rose 
admitted, turning them palms up for Miss Dean’s 
inspection. 

‘‘My dear girl! And you’ve sat there without 
a mite of fuss with your hands scraped and torn like 
that.” Miss Dean took command of the situation 
at once. “ Billy, put your hand in this other 
pocket,” she said hastily, and then when another 
small bag appeared, “ divide that with Dilly, and 
you both go and sit on the front steps till I come 
out. Then I’ll take you home with me.” 

137 


THE SHELDON SIX 


“ ni thee that Billy doethn’t go near the well or 
get into any mithchief,” promised Dilly as well as 
she could with a large gum-drop in her mouth. 
“ My father will come thoon and take me home.” 

“ You’d never guess it was Billy’s father, too, 
would you? ” laughed Miss Dean as they started for 
the house. “ I never did see such a self-satisfied 
child.” 

“Well, anyway, she did the right thing when 
she ran for you,” Rose said gratefully. “ Susan 
and I would still have been down in that dark hole. 
I hadn’t thought any farther ahead than just to get 

down there and see whether ” she stopped with 

a shudder. 

“ Yes, yes, I know,” Miss Dean answered 
hastily, and then to Susan, “ It was a bad bump, 
wasn’t it, dear, and it took you a few minutes to 
wake up.” 

“Ho! I wasn’t asleep. I stepped on a 
board, and Dilly pulled it, and I went down ker- 
plop, and — and then Rose said, ‘ You’re all safe 
now,’ and I told her, ‘ Don’t you put your foot in 
my face.’ ” 

“ Exactly. There certainly doesn’t seem to be 
any time for a nap there,” said Miss Dean with a 
twinkle. “And when we get a small piece of 
plaster on that scratched cheek you’ll hardly know 
that anything has happened.” 

138 


DING! DONG! BELL! 


“ Is it ’nuff to make Jimsey feel bad? ’’ 

“ Plenty. We’ll make the plaster big enough 
for that.” They were in the kitchen by this time 
and Miss Eunice was lifting the cover of the tea- 
kettle. “ Now we’ll boil some water, and I’ll hunt 
up bandages and salve ; I know exactly where Aunt 
Serena used to keep all those things.” 

Miss Dean worked fast and skilfully. It seemed 
no time at all before there was a bit of plaster on 
Susan’s cheek and something soothing on the back 
of her head. Meanwhile Rose’s hands had been 
soaking in hot water, and after they were softly 
dried, a salve, deliciously cool and fragrant, was 
dabbed on with absorbent cotton. 

‘‘ You seem to know just how to do it,” Rose said, 
watching with interested eyes. 

“ I took a short course in nursing. There has to 
be someone in a place like this who can handle 
things before the doctor gets here. You’ve just 
got to be neighborly — oh, did I hurt you? ” She 
was putting on a bandage and she stopped suddenly. 

Rose shook her head. She had winced uncon- 
sciously, not under the gentle touch of Miss Dean’s 
fingers, but at the memory of what she, herself, had 
been thinking on the day of their arrival about 
neighbors in general and this one in particular. 

“ Now we’ll put a large soft handkerchief aroimd 
each hand,” said Miss Eunice. “ Why don’t you 

139 


THE SHELDON SIX 


both go out on the front porch and sit till the folks 
come home? ” 

“ I couldn’t go out there in this dress,” Rose ob- 
jected. “ It’s a sight. And Susan’s is, too.” 

“ Suppose I play lady’s maid and help you both 
into clean ones, and then I’ll run off with the twin- 
nies.” 

Somewhat later they were out on the porch and 
Miss Dean was saying good-bye. “ I believe I 
wouldn’t let Susan run around much for the next 
hour,” she suggested, drawing Rose a little away 
from the others. “ It’s better to be sure that that 
bump doesn’t mean anything more than it seems to 
mean.” 

“Do you think it’s anything serious?” Rose 
was anxious at once. 

“ No; if I did I should telephone for the doctor. 
I believe in being on the safe side, though, and it 
won’t hurt her to keep quiet for a while. You may 
have to entertain her a little — play some guessing 
game or tell her a story. I don’t believe I’d read 
to her — it might make her sleepy, and I should 
rather she wouldn’t go to sleep just now.” 

Dilly and Billy came to the porch to say good- 
bye, and Susan viewed the former with a disapprov- 
ing air. “ The next time p’waps you won’t pull a 
board when my foot’s on it,” she observed severely. 

“After thith p’rapth you’ll mind uth when we 
140 


BING! DONG! BELL! 


tell you not to do thumthing,” retorted Dilly, who 
was not easily put down. 

Billy snuggled close to Rose for a bashful mo- 
ment. “ 1 1-like you,” he stammered softly. “ You 
are a p-p-peach.” 

“ What are you thaying, Billy Becker? Ith it 
polite? ” demanded his sharp-eyed sister. “ Ex- 

cuthe Billy, pleathe, if ” 

“ Come on; we must go,” interrupted Miss Dean. 
“ Come over to-morrow and let me have a look at 
those hands, will you. Miss Rose? And then you 
can tell me if Susan is as frisky as a kitten,” she 
called back as they went down the path. 

Rose took one chair and Susan climbed into an- 
other. Her doll, which she had brought down to 
show to Dilly, she held with motherly devotion. For 
a few moments neither spoke, then Susan sighed 
deeply and shifted her child from one arm to the 
other. “ I don’t like to sit so still,” she said with 
a prolonged yawn that worried her sister. Then 
she wriggled in her chair, cast a longing glance to- 
ward the garden, clutched Geraldine carelessly 
with her head sagging downward. 

“ Want me to tell you a story? ” 

‘‘ No, thanks. I don’t b’lieve you could so well 
as Connie — or Anne.” Susan’s voice was sweet 
and her manner very polite. She looked sober, and 
Rose, watching her, began to wonder if she could 
141 


THE SHELDON SIX 


have been hurt more than they suspected. It was 
not like Susan to be so gentle or to refuse a story, 
even poorly told. 

“ Don’t you feel well? ” ventured Rose, wishing 
that Father or Anne would come and take the 
weight of responsibility from her. Thank good- 
ness EfRe would be there before long, and she knew 
how to take care of sick people. 

“ I — I’ve got kind of a — a pain wight here,” 
quavered Susan, laying her hand on her chest. “ I 
think if I could go out and put those boards back 
’fore Daddy ” 

“ You couldn’t put them back alone,” inter- 
rupted Rose, much relieved. Experience made her 
understand at once what kind of a pain her sister 
had. “Daddy’ll have to know, anyway, so that 
well can be filled,” she went on with a shudder. “ I 
don’t see why it was left that way.” 

“ It was all tight when I saw it first.” Susan 
was finding confession helpful. “And Dilly did 
tell me not to, but she helped push the big wocks off. 
Billy kept twying to say something, but I couldn’t 
wait for him.” 

“ You knew you ought not to do it, didn’t you? ” 

“ Ye-es, but I guess I must have wanted to be 
naughty. You made me cwoss when I was up- 
stairs — and I had to do something.” 

“ Oh, it’s my fault, is it? Well, I think it’s rather 
142 


^ DING! DONG! BELL!’’ 


sneaky to put the blame on someone else. I made 

Anne cross, too, but I don’t believe ” Rose 

stopped abruptly. It had flashed into her mind 
that not so very long ago she had been putting the 
responsibility for her own shortcomings on Anne’s 
shoulders. She could hear herself saying, “ You 
got me into this,” and Anne had retorted, “ I wish 
you’d play fair.” 

“ ‘ If the coat fits put it on,’ and ‘ What’s sauce 
for the goose is sauce for the gander,’ ” she quoted 
suddenly to her small sister’s amazement. 

“ I’m not a goose,” Susan retorted sulkily. She 
had not understood, but she was sure of this. 

“ Well, maybe you’re not, but I am. And 
Anne’s a darling duck. Let’s start over again, Su- 
san, and not do the things we know are naughty. 
Then we shan’t have to feel sorry about them.” 

Susan shook her head doubtfully. “ But when 
someone makes you naughty,” she persisted with 
unshaken seriousness. 

“Oh, fudge! No one can really make you 
naughty except yourself.” And then with a sud- 
den clear vision of how much easier it was to tell 
others how to be good than to be so herself. Rose 
changed the subject. “ Let’s play a sitting-still 
game,” she suggested. “ I’m thinking of some- 
thing ” — she paused impressively — “ something big 
and rough, and often noisy 

143 


THE SHELDON SIX 


“ I know/’ Susan interrupted, “ you mean Ellis. 
But it isn’t polite to talk about him that way when 
he isn’t here.” 

“ I do not mean Ellis. You’re not so smart as 
you think you are. Try it again. It’s big and 
rough and noisy and — and shaggy.” 

“ O-ho! Shaggy! I guess ” Susan stopped 

and turned a listening ear toward the road. “ I 
hear autos. There’s one coming with Anne and 
Connie in it and — and someone else. And there’s 
something big and noisy and shaggy coming wight 
to this house.” Susan, forgetting her motherly 
duty, dropped her doll on the chair, and flew to 
meet the splendid tawny dog who almost knocked 
her down with his enthusiastic greeting. 

Rose stood up feeling excited, too. If Rex had 
come then Efiie must be there. Yes, Miss Dean’s 
chauffeur was helping her out of the car. And 
just behind were Daddy and Ellis in Mr. Becker’s 
automobile — they must have come by way of Miss 
Dean’s, for Dilly and Billy were in the car. Now 
the Beckers had driven away, and Father and Ellis 
had joined the other group; and they seemed all to 
be talking at once. Rose felt a sudden impulse to 
run off to her own room and shut herself in, but be- 
fore she could start Rex came to lavish caresses 
upon her and sniff somewhat doubtfully at the band- 
aged hands. 


144 


^ DING! DONG! BELL! 


“ Hello, Efiie,” she said the next moment. 
“ My, but I’m glad to see you ! ” 

Effie smiled and looked pleased, and then a little 
anxious. “ Are you hurt much? ” she asked briefly. 

“ J ust enough to keep me from washing dishes 
for the rest of the summer,” laughed Rose. “ Are 
you going to take Eflie up to her room. Con? I 
hope you’ll find everything all right, Effie.” 

Effie was plainly surprised at this unusual solic- 
itude, but she only smiled again, and picked up her 
bag in lieu of saying anything. 

“We hadn’t any idea of finding Effie when we 
started,” explained Connie, lingering. “ The Ram- 
says wanted to show us what a beautiful drive it is 
to Shannon Junction, and when we reached it there 
were Effie and darling old Rex. The ‘ old girl ’ 
was late again, and that funny station-man was ter- 
ribly excited.” 

“ Humph! ” said Rose. “ I should think they’d 
get a new engine.” She turned to look at the group 
near the automobile as Effie and Connie departed. 
Father and Ellen Ramsay and Ellis were just 
starting for the garden, and Anne, who had been 
standing by the car talking to Neil, turned toward 
the house at that moment and came running up the 
path. 

“ Oh, Rose,” she said breathlessly, “ it was per- 
fectly splendid of you to go down that awful well. 

145 


THE SHELDON SIX 


Daddy’s just shining with pride over it and so are 
the rest of us. And I’m — I’m so sorry I was cross. 
Do your hands hurt awfully? ” 

“ Hardly at all now. And it wasn’t your fault 
you were cross.” 

“ Oh, yes it was,” Anne responded with convic- 
tion. “Come and see Neil,” she went on; “the 
others have gone to talk garden, and he wants to 
speak to you.” 

“ Well, I don’t much want to speak to him — he’ll 
ask me why I didn’t go this afternoon,” began Rose, 
but a call from the car and the vigorous waving of 
Neil’s hand stopped her. “ Oh, all right, I’m com- 
ing,” she said. 

“ Look at the baseball mitts! ” Neil called as she 
approached. “ Say, wasn’t that a great chance for 
you to show what you’re made of? How did it feel 
to be crawling down there? Crikey! I wish I 
could have done it.” There was pure envy in his 
tone. 

“ It wasn’t so much,” Rose answered. “ The 
well had been partly filled up, and Susan was hardly 
hurt at all, and ” 

“ But you didn’t know all that,” Neil interrupted. 
“ Oh, I say, this is going to make you doubly valu- 
able to me as instructor of athletics in my boys’ club. 
They’ll think you’re a cracker jack.” 

“ I told you I haven’t patience enough to teach 
146 


BING! DONG! BELL!^^ 


anyone/’ Rose answered petulantly, not at all sure 
that she liked having her refusals swept aside in this 
way. 

“ Oh, that doesn’t matter. We’ve just got to 
have you, so that settles it.” 

“ But suppose I won’t.” 

“ Then I shall keep on asking until you will. 
What’s the matter? Got too much to do at home? 
Are you helping out about the garden? I know 
your father needs all the help he can get.” 

“ No-o,” faltered Rose. “ I haven’t been asked 
to work in the garden.” 

“ Oh! Do you wait to be asked to do things 
like that? ” There was amazement in the boy’s 
eyes. “ Well, of course, it’s none of my business. 
I shan’t let you off from teaching my boys though. 
Oh, here comes Ellen.” 

Mr. Sheldon and Ellis and Anne clustered about 
the car as Ellen got in. “ I think you’re wonder- 
ful,” she said, leaning out to speak to Rose. 

We’ve been looking at the place where you went 
down. I should have been scared blue and per- 
fectly helpless.” 

Rose flushed under the admiring glances of her 
family. I was afraid, but I thought there wasn’t 
anything else to do.” 

‘‘ That’s the finest kind of courage — to do things 
when you’re scared,” said Neil. “We must go, 

147 


THE SHELDON SIX 


Ellen. Hegan will be out hunting for me if I don’t 
get home soon.” 

“ Please come and see us,” added Ellen, as the 
car began to move. “ I want to ask a lot more 
about gardens, Mr. Sheldon.” 

Walking slowly back to the house. Rose stuck 
her hand under her father’s arm and then laughed 
at the sight of it. “ Looks like a large white paw, 
doesn’t it, Daddy? ” 

“ Oh, Posy,” he began, squeezing her arm gently 
as if she had suddenly become fragile, “ I’m so 
proud of my daughter I ” 

“ Pie-ease, let’s not talk about it,” begged Rose. 
“ It gives me the shivers. Daddy, darling, just as 
soon as my hands get well I’m going to apply for a 
position as under-gardener. Will you take me 
on?” 

“ I should say we would. Ellis and I didn’t want 
to ask you until after Effie came, and you got a 
little used to things here.” Father’s voice was full 
of glad excitement. “ That was Ellis’ idea; your 
big brother is growing very wise and thoughtful 
these days. We need you badly, though. Posy.” 

They did want her, then. What a goose she had 
been! No wonder Neil had looked at her queerly. 
Rose was conscious of a fluttering thankfulness 
that made her voice unsteady as she answered, All 
right, sir; I’ll be there.” She felt an unusual light- 
148 


DING! DONG! BELL!^^ 

ness of spirit — a queer certainty that this day was 
going to mean a great deal to her. 

“ Good old scout, Rosie.” Ellis caught up to 
them with Anne, and he slipped his arm under 
Rose’s, and her hand rested on his outstretched 
palm. Father drew Anne close on the other side, 
and thus linked they went on toward the house. 

The mellow light of the late afternoon gleamed 
and twinkled in the windows of the house as they 
approached. Connie and Susan, and Jim, who had 
just got home, were sitting on the steps, petting 
Rex. Such a nice family. Rose was thinking; and 
this was certainly a cosy house of Anne’s, and 
Brookfield seemed a pleasant place after all. 

“ ‘ The Big Four,’ ” Ellis murmured, breaking 
the silence. He was always thinking up titles for 
movies and never getting any farther. “ Or, if you 
want a thriller, call it ‘ The Captive Maiden.’ ” 

Rose laughed. ‘‘ Make it a movie ‘ suitable for 
all ages,’ ” she said quickly. “ Let’s call it ‘ The 
Home Team.’ ” 


149 


CHAPTER IX 


GUM-SHOE GOLF 

“ She said I was to go over to-day and let her 
look at my hands, so I suppose it wouldn’t be very 
polite not to,” Rose said doubtfully the next* after- 
noon. “ Effie knows how to take care of my hands, 
though.” 

“Are you talking about Miss Dean? ” asked her 
father. “ Why, of course you must go. Even if 
your hands don’t need her, you ought to call there 
and thank her for her kindness. Why don’t you 
get Anne or Connie to go with you? ” 

“ I’d rather go alone.” Not being able to do 
anything with her hands. Rose had had a long, dull 
morning, and the prospect of this call wasn’t very 
enlivening. “ I’ll have to get Nan to help me about 
my hair and dress.” 

A half hour later she was ready to start. “ I’ll 
only have to stay a little while. Nan,” she said, 
lingering on the porch with her sister. “ Miss 
Dean’s such a busy woman she wouldn’t want me 
for long.” 


GUM^SHOE GOLF 


\ 

You can tell that when you get there — oh, are 
those the Becker twins in that automobile? ” 

“ No. You couldn’t fool me on those children 
now. I just love Billy’s little red head. He’s my 
friend for life.” 

“ I think you ought to call Dillyxyour friend, too. 
She certainly was clever enough to do just the right 
thing.” 

“All right then,” conceded Rose, “ she’s my 
friend. But Billy’s my beloved friend. There’s a 
difference, you know. Well, I’m off.” She was 
feeling more cheerful than when she went up-stairs, 
and in her glance lurked the spirit of adventure. 
“ I’ll probably be back in half an hour.” 

But it was two hours later that she burst into 
Anne’s room again so full of joyful information 
that she began to talk before she got there. 

“ I’ve had the time of my life,” she announced. 
“ Miss Eunice is awfully nice, but Miss Emeline’s 
the dearest thing you ever saw. I’m surprised to 
think you haven’t been to see her, Anne Sheldon.” 
There was a twinkle in Rose’s eyes as she said this 
last, and an answering one in Anne’s when she 
answered. 

“ I didn’t dare to go,” she said coolly. “ I was 
afraid of what you’d say to me.” 

Rose laughed. “ You may go any time now,” she 
chuckled. “ I’d like to see you staying away from 

151 


THE SHELDON SIX 


any place just because you didn’t have my permis- 
sion. Miss Emeline’s awfully interesting,” she 
went on with a little sigh. “ She’s taught a lot of 
the women near here to make rugs and bedspreads, 
and she sells what they make or sends them away 
to be sold. When she was young she studied de- 
sign, so she helps these people about colors and pat- 
terns.” Rose stopped for breath and stooped to 
let Anne take out her hatpin. Then she bent her 
head almost to the level of the bed and cleverly slid 
out from under her hat. 

“ She encourages them to make original designs, 
and some of them are won-der-ful,” she went on. 
“And she has the duckiest shop you ever saw. I 
wanted to play store in it.” 

“ Did Miss Eunice think your hands were getting 
on well? ” 

“ Oh, yes. Miss Emeline sent out for her, and 
she left her work to come in and look at ’em. And, 
Nan, she’s got a wonderful farming suit! Miss 
Emeline has material like it in her shop and a pat- 
tern and everything. I’ve just got to have one as 
soon as my hands get well. Miss Emeline said 
she’d show me how to make it.” 

“ That’s nice,” said Anne. “ I should almost 

think, though ” she hesitated, and wished she 

had not begun. 

“ Go on,” Rose murmured resignedly. “ I al- 
152 


GUM-SHOE GOLF 

ways expect to have cold water splashed on my pet 
plans.” 

“ I was only going to say that you had some old 
clothes you might wear for garden work.” 

“ I just loiew you were going to say that. I 
don’t see why I put those old duds in my trunk, 
anyway. Let’s give ’em away, and then they won’t 
prick my conscience.” Rose laughed, and then went 
on seriously. ‘‘ I’m sure I could work better in a 
suit like the one Miss Eunice wears. I’m going out 
to explain to Daddy about it.” 

For a few days after this, though her hands were 
healing quickly. Rose found it hard to know what 
to do with herself. Then, one morning, her father 
suggested that a certain part of the garden might 
be used for a tennis-court if it were large enough, 
and she went directly to measure it off with Jim- 
sey’s help. It would do so far as size was con- 
cerned, but her enthusiasm waned when she saw the 
rocks and hollows and hummocks. 

“ Too rough, is it?” asked her father, who was 
just going by and could read her disappointment in 
her sober face. “ It would be quite an achievement, 
wouldn’t it, to get something even passable out of 
what looks impossible? ” 

‘‘ I suppose so,” Rose agreed doubtfully, but, 
nevertheless, her ambition was fired by the sugges- 
tion, and she studied the place critically. It should 

153 


THE SHELDON SIX 


be dug up and levelled and rolled, but that would 
cost too much. If she could get rid of the stones 
and fill up the worst holes, perhaps 

“ I believe we can get some fun out of it even 
if it isn’t very good.” She turned suddenly, only 
to find that both Jimsey and her father had de- 
parted. “ Well, it seems to be up to me,” she 
thought, looking at her hands, now protected only 
by loose gloves. “If it weren’t for these paws of 
mine I’d begin on the rocks. I believe, anyway, I 
can rake up the small stones.” 

She got a rake and began to draAV the smaller 
stones into heaps, but after using her hands as 
carefully as she could for only a little while she 
gave it uj) in despair. 

“No can do,” she said, with a rueful smile at her 
father, who was again passing near the future 
tennis court. “ I’d stick it out and stand the hurt, 
only I’m afraid it would keep them from getting 
well.” 

“ That would be poor business. You need those 
hands and so do we.” Father’s gaze travelled from 
her to Susan and Jim, who were watching Connie 
as she worked in her garden. “ You know. Posy, 
when something like this is started it isn’t always 
necessary for the one at the head of it to do the 
actual work. It takes another kind of ability to 
direct others and keep them busy and pleased 

154 


GUM SHOE GOLF 

with their job. Think it over and don’t give 
up.” 

Rose caught the idea at once and it suited her. 
“ I think I could hire Susan and Jimsey,” she be- 
gan doubtfully, ‘‘ but — ^Daddy, would you mind 
advancing me two dimes on my next allowance? ” 

Mr. Sheldon plunged his hand into his pocket. 
“ Considering that you will be improving the prop- 
erty we won’t call it your allowance. You can be 
the contractor and hire your workmen, and I’ll pro- 
vide the wages.” 

“ Oh, Daddy, that’s darling of you. I hoped you 
would, but I didn’t like to ask,” Rose confessed with 
her usual honesty. “ Now I’ll see what they say.” 

She went over to where the children were still 
watching Connie. “ Susan, will you and Jimsey 
be an express company and carry away the rocks 
from the tennis-ground? ” she proposed. “ I’ll 
give you ten cents apiece for it.” 

“ Sure. I would without the money,” agreed 
Jim. 

“ You can unload the big ones here, because I 
want a rockery,” said Connie. 

As easily as this the business part was settled. 
Jim ran to get his cart, Susan was all enthusiasm 
over the promised dime, and in a few minutes a 
flourishing express business was started. 

Rose decided that it would be her part to see that 

155 


THE SHELDON SIX 

they did not work too hard, nor too long at a time. 
It would be nice, she thought, to surprise them with 
a lunch in the middle of the morning. As she sur- 
veyed the rock-strewn field she wished with all her 
heart that she could rake. It would help a lot if 
the smaller stones were in neat little heaps. Ab- 
sent-mindedly she lifted a large pebble with the toe 
of her shoe and landed it cleverly next to another 
one not far away. She successfully tried another, 
and, behold, there was the beginning of a stone- 
heap. 

“ Hurrah ! If I can’t work with my hands I 
can with my feet,” she thought jubilantly, and tried 
her luck again. This time she was farther away 
from her goal and it took three attempts, but she 
landed it finally. Something made her look in 
sudden alarm at her shoe. “ Crikey! Even sec- 
ond-besters are too good for this,” she decided, and 
the next moment remembered that in her closet was 
a pair of outworn shoes which should have been 
left behind when she packed, but had somehow crept 
into her trunk — rubber-soled shoes with the heel- 
part beginning to flap, and holes in the leather. 

Ten minutes later she had changed to the old 
shoes, had stopped in the kitchen for a short confab 
with Effle, and was back on the ground again ex- 
perimenting with her new idea which, after the first 
heap of stones was completed, she triumphantly 
156 




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“IT’S A NEW GAME; QUITE FUN, TOO.” 








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GUM-SHOE GOLF 


named ‘‘ gum-shoe golf.” It was better fun than 
doing nothing, she decided, and she began to make 
a real game of it by trying to see with how few lifts 
she could land a stone in a desired spot. 

Suddenly she found Jimsey regarding her ef- 
forts with curiosity. ‘‘ What are you doing? ” he 
questioned, as his gaze roved from the heap he was 
at work on to the other neat piles. “ Say, have 
you — have you hopped all those that way? ” 

“ Uh-huh,” nodded Rose, delicately lifting a 
stone in one attempt to the very top of the heap, 
where, to her astonishment, it stayed. “ It’s a new 
game; quite fun, too.” 

“ I want to play it,” said Susan, who, too ex- 
hausted to touch another rock, was resting in the 
cart. “ I — I b’lieve I’ll like that better than wocks ; 
I’m tired of those.” 

“ I bet I can do one in fewer kieks than you can. 
Rose,” said Jimsey excitedly. “ Let’s choose two 
at ’bout the same distance from the heap.” 

Ellis, who had stopped to see what was going on, 
took in the idea at a glance. “ You ought to give 
Rose a handicap ; she’s had more practise,” he said. 
‘‘ Here, I’ll show you how good a score can be 
made.” 

“ Smarty! ” retorted Rose gaily. ‘‘ Now listen, 
children, you mustn’t really kick ’em; you just get 
your toe under and lift. Susan, you go way up in 

157 


THE SHELDON SIX 

that corner and start a new heap ; we don’t want too 
many here.” 

“ I’ll help Susan.” Connie had strolled over to 
see why the express company had stopped supply- 
ing her with rocks. 

“ Now, Ellis,” began Rose, and then paused. 
“ Wait a minute; here’s Father coming. Come on. 
Daddy; this is a tournament, and we want you to 
enter. I’ll show you how we do it, but this won’t 
count for me.” 

“ I should think you’d be glad it didn’t,” giggled 
Jimsey, as his sister made elaborate preparation 
and then lifted her stone about six inches. 

“Never mind; I’ll make up for it next time. 
You see what I mean. Daddy,” Rose answered un- 
disturbed. “ Go on, Ellis.” 

Mr. Sheldon watched while Ellis made a really 
beautiful goal in one stroke; Jimsey, laughing un- 
til he couldn’t see straight, took three lifts to get 
there; while Rose, whom luck had deserted for the 
moment, sent her stone in all directions but the right 
one. Then Mr. Sheldon’s shoe involuntarily in- 
serted itself under a stone, and with one clean lift 
he landed it in just a little better position than the 
one Ellis had achieved. 

“ I can’t have this,” Rose said excitedly. “ I 
invented this game and you’re all beating me. 
Let’s start a new heap and see how quickly we can 
158 


GUM-SHOE GOLF 

fill it. Jimsey, just put two or three stones to- 
gether for a beginning, and then you and I must 
make a better record.” 

“Any limit to the number of players, or is it a 
free-for-all? ” asked an amused voice suddenly. 
They had been so absorbed that no one had seen 
Effie open the door for a big dark-haired boy and 
point out the family group to him. “ Do you mind 
if I ask why the whole family is hopping around 
in this strange way? ” he went on as they all turned 
to look at him. 

“Archie! By all that’s jolly! ” exclaimed Ellis, 
making a leap for him. “ Where did you come 
from? ” 

“ From my summer home,” answered Archie 
Bradley mysteriously, his gaze roving from one to 
another of the group. “ Where’s Anne? She’s 
here, isn’t she? ” 

“ Of course,” Rose answered. “ Tell us where 
you left Roger. And is Mr. Pearson with you, 
and how’s your uncle? ” 

“ Roger is — is in his summer home,” grinned 
Archie; “ and — and Mr. Pearson is at his summer 
home. And Uncle is very well and has gone to 
Oregon. Now you know all about us, so show me 
Anne, and tell me what under the sun you were 
doing when I interrupted.” 

“ Why this,” explained Rose, “ this is a game in- 
159 


THE SHELDON SIX 


tended to clear the tennis-ground of stones. I 
made it up and it is called gum-shoe golf. It’s very 
nice because you don’t have to carry heavy clubs. 
You just have to put on shoes like these.” She 
stuck out a dilapidated shoe which, even in so short 
a time, looked worse than it had when she had put 
it on, and as she surveyed it her mischievous smile 
faded. 

“ Oh, my goodness, what have I done? ” she 
wailed. “ Don’t ever let Anne Sheldon know that 
I’ve got the entire family into playing a game that 
will ruin their shoes. Daddy, why did you let me 
do it?” 

“ I hadn’t got ’round to thinking about that part 
of it,” Mr. Sheldon answered guiltily. “ I’m no 
kind of a proper parent.” 

“ Yes, you are. Yes, you are.” Susan hugged 
his legs with a suddenness that nearly unbalanced 
him. “ You’re the best Daddy I ever had.” 

“ Probably. But, children, let’s promise not to 
play this attractive game, invented by your clever 
sister, unless we are wearing shoes as old — as old 
as hers look. Is it a bargain? ” 

“ I don’t like the old game anyway; it’s stupid,” 
said Susan, who had not been very successful. “ I 
pwomise never to play it again, shoes or no shoes. 
I’m too hungr-ry to play anything.” 

“ Oh, that makes me think,” said Rose, starting 
i6o 


GVM-SHOE GOLF 


toward the house, “ IVe got a date with Effie. 
Back in a minute.” She went on for a few steps, 
then the sudden opening of the back door and 
the sight of Anne carrying a tray made her 
pause. 

“ Fiddle! ” she said to herself disgustedly. “ It 
was my party and now it will be Nan’s. She al- 
ways gets the credit of doing the nice things.” 

“ I’ll help her,” cried Archie, dashing by Rose 
and surprising Anne to such a degree that she 
nearly dropped the tray. “Anne, even without 
such good-looking eats I’d be glad to see you,” he 
said, when he had cleverly rescued her burden. 

“ Would you really? That’s awfully kind of 
you.” Anne was walking toward the family group, 
to which Rose had soberly retreated. “ But you 
needn’t thank me for this lunch. This is Rose’s 
party.” 

“ I was just going to feed my — my workmen,” 
explained Rose, secretly ashamed because she had 
been cross. “Let’s sit down; the grass is warm. 
I’m thankful Effie made my idea bigger.” 

“ Well, she knew Archie had come,” observed 
Connie, quite as if that were enough to explain any 
amount of extra food. 

“ She probably remembered how I used to eat 
last spring when you let me stay to dinner. But I 
never expected you to remind me of it, Connie,” 

i6i 


THE SHELDON SIX 


said Archie in a grieved tone. “ Next to Anne 
you were my best friend in this family.” 

“Am still,” Connie replied, at the same moment 
politely accepting a cream cheese sandwich. “ Um ! 
Good! ” she went on hastily. “ Try one of these, 
and your feelings will feel better. Anyway, you 
can’t make me think you’re very sad when your eyes 
dance like mad.” 

‘^You can’t be sad 
When your eyes dance like mad,” 

sang Jimsey, and then blushingly rolled out of sight 
behind his father. 

“ Gracious! Have you got a poet in your fam- 
ily, too? Roger goes murmuring around, and 
scribbles things about billows and willows and — 
and pillows, I guess, though that doesn’t seem to 
fit in very well. Yes, thank you, I could eat an- 
other cookie if I was urged.” 

“ I suppose you’ve told the others where you 
came from and all about the rest of the family,” 
Anne remarked. “And, by the way, what were you 
all doing out here a little while ago? Before Archie 
came it must have been, because I didn’t see him. 
It seemed as if you were hopping around on one 
foot, or something like that.” 

She was looking from one to another so inno- 
162 


GUM-SHOE GOLF 


cently that Ellis went off into a stifled burst of 
laughter in which the others joined. 

“ What is it? Why are you laughing at me? ” 
demanded Anne. 

“ De-ah Anne,” began Susan, who was as sober 
as possible and could see nothing funny in the situa- 
tion ; “ de-ah Anne, they’re laughing ’cause they’re 
foolish. We were just playing a silly game that 
hurt ” 

“ Oh, Susan ! Have another cooky before they’re 
all gone,” Rose interrupted. “Archie didn’t tell us 
one word. Nan, except that he’d come from his 
summer home, wherever that may be.” 

“ Well, I’ll tell you everything I know now,” said 
that young gentleman. “ I was too hungry before. 
It won’t take long to tell. Do you remember I said 
last spring that I believed Brookfield was some- 
where within a hundred miles of the place where 
Uncle was born? Well, it is, only it’s three miles 
instead of a hundred, and Peter Pearson and Roger 
and I have come to spend the summer on the land 
that Uncle owns. That’s all.” 

“All!” shouted Ellis, throwing his arms about 
Archie in a mad wrestle which upset them both. 
“All! You villain, why didn’t you write us about 
it so that we could have the — the joy of anticipa- 
tion? ” 

“ Uncle didn’t decide till about two weeks ago. 
163 


THE SHELDON SIX 


Besides, we wanted to surprise you. Stop punch- 
ing me, El, or I’ll have to choke you! ” 

“ I think you’re too big to play like little boys,” 
Susan remarked with cold disapproval. “ ’Sides, 
Archie’s heel knocked that last cooky wight off the 
plate.” 

“ Sorry. I apologize. Madam.” Archie jerked 
himself from Ellis’ grasp and sat up, trying to 
smooth his thick dark hair. “ Let up now, Ellis. 
I expect I’ll have to catch it from Roger and Mr. 
Pearson when I go back, so don’t use up all my 
muscle.” 

“Why?” asked Anne. “What have you been 
doing now? ” 

“ That’s right. Blame it all on me,” Archie re- 
torted, trying to look hurt. “ I suppose I deserve 
it, though. You see, we got here yesterday, and 
while we were fussing around getting ready for 
night, the kid hurt his foot — not much, but just 
enough to keep him from wanting to walk far to- 
day. We came up in the machine, and I’ve got to 
overhaul that before I can use it on these hills ” 

“ Same old machine? ” asked Rose eagerly. 
“ The one I learned to drive? I hope it is.” 

“ Uh-huh.” Archie’s face expressed deep gloom. 
“ Same old flivver. I tried to get Uncle to think 
we needed a new one, but he said this would do for 
a while longer. I’d just skilfully taken him out of 
164 


GUM-SHOE GOLF 


his way to show him a beauty, too. Grown people 
never seem to have the right ideas at the right 
time.” 

Mr. Sheldon, who was sitting back of the group, 
chuckled appreciatively, and Archie turned toward 
him a little abashed. “ I forgot you were there, 
sir. But, of course, that was only a fool speech, 
and, anyway, you don’t seem so dreadfully 
grown-up as some people do.” 

“ He’s just our brother-Daddy,” said Connie. 
“ He isn’t really a grown-up.” 

“ Well,” Archie went on, “ to go back to where 
I was. I got the breakfast and washed the dishes.” 
He looked so proudly conscious of his exceeding 
worthiness that Anne giggled and he frowned at 
her. “ Then, knowing that Roger couldn’t walk 
three miles with a sore foot — in fact at that time I 
didn’t know how far it was — and that P. Pearson 
wouldn’t leave him alone there, I slid out and hiked 
till I found you.” 

“And about this time, I suppose, they’re wildly 
anxious about you,” Rose said disapprovingly. 

“ Not so fast, my child. They had gone off a 
little way to fish, and I pinned a large note — ^not on 
the pincushion, because we don’t own one, but in a 
place where they couldn’t fail to see it. So there! ” 

“ Then it’s all right and you can have dinner 
with us,” said Anne. “And later on Mr. Bona- 
165 


THE SHELDON SIX 


parte will take you home. I think he’s equal to 
six miles, don’t you, Ellis?” 

“ Oh, sure — if you take enough time — and sugar. 
Probably Archie would get there sooner if he 
walked.” 

“Not on your life! I prefer Mr. Bonaparte, 
whoever he may be. And while we’re waiting for 
dinner I’ll help you clear the tennis-court. Rose. 
I ought to because I expect to be invited to play.” 

Connie sprang to her feet. “ Express company 
called to work after the rest hour,” she said. “ I 
hope there are more big rocks ; I need them in my 
business. I’ll help load the first wagon; hurry, or 
I’ll get there first, Susan,” And with this impetus 
the younger children were started and the work be- 
gan to progress. 

Mr. Sheldon and Ellis went back to their labors 
in the garden. Rose hurried off to find the rake 
which she had left in some forgotten spot, and 
Anne and Archie were alone for a few moments. 

“ Did you like the Alice Bell as much as you ex- 
pected? ” Anne asked eagerly. “ You and Roger 
never said much in your letters except that you’d 
write more the next time.” 

Archie laughed. “ That’s one on us. I’m an 
awful slacker about letters,” he confessed. “ It 
was one grand old voyage, all the same, and the 
Alice Bell is a corker. We all think the girl who 

i66 


GUM-SHOE GOLF 


named her gave her a great start in life. And say, 
Anne, you certainly hypnotized Uncle. He got on 
with Roger like a breeze.” 

“ Oh, did he? I’m so glad. I knew Roger 
would be all right when he was with his family.” 

Archie shook his head doubtfully. “ He’s a 
spoiled kid,” he said slowly, “ but somehow he 
makes us all like him so much that we can’t be stern 
with him.” 

Archie had such a worried fatherly air that Anne 
wanted to laugh, but didn’t. “ What’s the matter 
with him now? ” she asked soberly. 

“ Well, naturally. Uncle wants him to go back to 
school next fall, but he’s behind in some studies, and 
he’s such a lazy cub he won’t stick to any regular 
work with Mr. Pearson. Of course, when he does 
go back he won’t be able to keep up and then he’ll 
be miserable just as he was before.” 

“ Oh, well, perhaps something will start him,” 
Anne encouraged, feeling very vague as to what 
that something might be. 

‘‘ Say, this is a peach of a little old house, and a 
great chance for a garden, isn’t it?” Archie went 
on eagerly. “ Do you mind if I come over and help 
dig?” 

“We’d love it,” Anne accepted with great 
promptness. “ That’s Daddy’s biggest trouble — 
to get help — ^and the doctor says he mustn’t do 
167 


THE SHELDON SIX 


heavy work for some time. He’s getting better al- 
ready, though.” 

“ He looks a lot better than when I saw him last, 
and he seems to like it here.” 

“ He does. We all do — except Rose,” Anne 
said with a sigh. “And she’s trying to like it. 
There she comes now with the rake, and you’ll have 
to work. I’ll go in and finish what I was doing, 
and we’ll meet at dinner-time.” 

To Rose it seemed like a bit of Melford to have 
Archie here, and she followed him around while he 
worked, and, because he coaxed it out of her, told 
him some of her troubles, and explained her 
gloved hands. 

“ That was corking of you,” he said when she 
had finished and forebore to add more praise, for 
which she was thankful. “And I don’t believe 
you’re going to have such a bad time this summer. 
We must plan something right away to keep up 
your spirits.” 

“ Goodness, I hope I’m not such a baby as that,” 
Rose retorted, “ and — and, anyway, I don’t mind 
so much as I did. I — I seemed to find out some 
things by going down that well.” She said the 
last half-doubtingly and more to herself than to 
him. 

By noon the tennis-ground looked as if it were 
beginning to have some idea of the high purpose for 
1 68 


GUM-SHOE GOLF 


which it was intended, and the workers retired to 
get ready for dinner, feeling that they had earned 
it. 

“ Now I’ve got one more thing to do — it’ll take 
me about an hour,” Ellis said as they left the table, 
“ and then my boss says I can have the rest of the 
afternoon off. I’ll harness Mr. Bony and ” 

“And we’ll all go for a r-r-ride,” Susan put in 
with an extra roll of her difficult consonant. 

“ I’m going to stay at home,” Father hastened 
to say, “ and I’d like to have someone take care of 
me and talk about — ^about chickens. We’ve got to 
have some new ones.” 

“ I’ll stay,” volunteered Jim, who never had as 
much as he wanted of his father’s society, and wel- 
comed an occasional chance when the older ones 
were away. 

“ Do you think if I take care of you I might have 
some little yellow shickens all my own? ” Susan 
bargained. 

“ We’ll see. Anyway, you and Jimsey keep 
house with me this afternoon and we’ll let these 
almost grown-uppers go off by themselves. I’m 
going to rest now, but when the others depart we’ll 
have a secret council.” 

“ Perhaps I ought to stay, too. I’m not so ter- 
ribly grown-up — at least, the others don’t think so,” 
Connie suggested, doubtfully, but she flushed with 
169 


THE SHELDON SIX 


pleasure at Rose’s immediate, “ Come along with 
us, Con. Of course we want you.” 

“ I believe Roger would send us back if we left 
you, Connie,” added Archie, and her delight was 
complete. 

The girls helped to clear the table and wash the 
dishes, and it was while Rose was finishing her part 
of the work that a brilliant idea came to her. 

“ Oh, Nan,” she said, bursting into the kitchen, 
where Anne was wiping dishes for Effie, and Con- 
nie was putting them away. “ Oh, Nan,” she be- 
gan again, and paused to see if Susan were within 
hearing, for if that young person knew her plan 
there would be no peaceable way of keeping her at 
home. The coast being clear, she tried once more. 
“ Don’t you think we might put up a lunch and 
have an early supper over there? ” Her voice was 
low and her eyes still travelled in search of 
Susan. 

“ Perfectly fine.” Anne almost whispered, un- 
derstanding at once the need of caution, and Connie 
whirled on one toe and clapped her hands sound- 
lessly. 

“ I baked this mornin’,” Effie remarked briefly. 
“ I guess you’ll find some things the boys’ll like.” 

“ Effie, you’re a jewel.” Rose gave her a quick 
hug, as much to her own surprise as to Effie’s. 
‘‘ We’ll have to hustle and pack the lunch before — 

I/O 


GUM^SHOE GOLF 

before anyone appears. And you explain to 
Daddy, will you, Nan, and ask him if he minds? ” 

By the time Ellis went to get Mr, Bonaparte, 
Rose, ready a little before the others and waiting 
on the porch, was in the happiest frame of mind she 
had been in since leaving Melford. It colored the 
summer rosily to know that Archie and Roger were 
so easily within reach. Perhaps she should have a 
chance to drive their car. Anyway, it made her 
feel much less homesick, and she was quite prepared 
to have a glorious time this afternoon. To-day the 
queer old horse and the big unstylish carry-all 
seemed funny and comfortable to her. She rather 
wished Mr. Bonaparte would balk at a hill, and 
that Anne would have to get out and tempt him 
with sugar. How Archie would laugh! She 
hoped no one would tell him about it beforehand, 
and she started impulsively down the path to warn 
Ellis, who was just driving out of the barn. 

When she reached the edge of the sidewalk, how- 
ever, it was not the old horse she was confronting, 
but an automobile, which had come quite unper- 
ceived by her from the opposite direction, and was 
just stopping in front of the house. 


171 


CHAPTER X 


MILL HOLLOW 

“ Don^t tell me that you are all going away.” 
Neil Ramsay’s voice, keenly disappointed, came 
from the depths of the car, and his quick eye saw 
at once that Anne and Connie and a stranger were 
just appearing on the porch, while Ellis was ap- 
proaching with Mr. Bonaparte. 

“ Can’t I get anyone to play with me this after- 
noon? ” he went on. “ Miss Eunice sent the car 
around unexpectedly, and I’m to do an errand for 
her, and after that — what I please. Do let me take 
someone somewhere.” 

Nine times out of ten Rose would have jumped 
at the chance of an automobile ride, but this was the 
tenth time, when she was perversely anxious to do 
something entirely different. Before she could an- 
swer, Anne had joined them and was introducing 
Archie, and then Ellis left Mr. Bonaparte and 
came along to the automobile. 

“ I’ve been trying all the week to get over to see 
you/’ he said at once, stretching out a welcoming 
172 


MILL HOLLOW 


hand to the boy in the car. Ellis had a soft spot 
in his heart for anyone who was ill or helpless, and 
to-day he felt friendly and protective as he grasped 
Neil’s hand. “ Father and I have been up to our 
eyes in work, but just as soon as we can get Rose 
and Archie started ” — Ellis paused long enough to 
gTin at his sister and chum — “ I’m going to sneak 
off and visit my neighbors.” 

“ Not if we know it,” said Rose, quick to notice 
that, contrary to his usual custom, Neil had no 
pleasant response ready. There was something in 
his eyes as he gazed at the two other boys that 
stirred her to sudden sympathy, and for the first 
time it seemed to her that his boyish face looked 
dejected. 

“ We’re going about three miles to see Archie’s 
camp,” Anne explained. “ Why can’t you drive 
there after you’ve done your errand? And where’s 
Ellen? ” 

‘‘ She looked like a shampoo advertisement 
when Miss Dean’s message came, and she couldn’t 
get her hair dry in time,” Neil answered, trying to 
smile. “ I wish I could take all of you in here, but 
you see with Hegan and the driver and these bun- 
dles Miss Eunice wants delivered there isn’t much 

room. I thought perhaps one he left his 

sentence unfinished, but his gaze singled out Rose. 
“ You didn’t go the other day,” he said frankly, 

173 


THE SHELDON SIX 

“won’t you come along now? We can easily do 
the errand and get to the camping-place as soon as 
the others do. Then I could leave you there 
to ” 

“ You must stay, too,” Archie put in heartily. 
“ I’d tell your driver how to go if I knew, but I 
lost my way this morning and walked about twice 
as far as I needed to. Perhaps if I say that my 
uncle has bought adjoining farms, and that one of 
them is called Spear’s Oaks you’ll know just where 
it is.” 

“ Just about, and the chauffeur has lived around 

here all his life. We’ll get there — that is ” he 

turned to Rose with a smile so eagerly appealing 
that she knew at once she could not refuse. And 
yet, now that it was impossible for her to go in the 
crowded carriage with the family, she wanted that 
privilege more than anything she could think of. 
Why hadn’t he asked Anne or Connie? Probably 
he would tease her again about his club. She should 
feel mean if she didn’t go. Unconsciously her 
hands gripped the edge of the car door until it 
hurt, and with the pang she was in the darkness of 
the well again, shaking with fright, and realizing 
for the first time in her life that she had always 
been trying to make things go to suit herself. 

Thoughts are fleet in the thinking, and before 
Neil’s smile had lost its eagerness Rose was answer- 
174 


MILL HOLLOW 

ing in her nicest way. ‘‘ Of course I’ll come with 
you. Catch me going in the family ark when I 
have a chance for an automobile ride.” 

The boy’s face brightened. “ That’s ripping of 
you,” he said simply. “ I’ll do something for you 
some day.” 

“ We’ll see you later then,” said Anne, and with 
Archie started toward the carriage, where Connie 
and Ellis were waiting for them. 

“ Oh, just a second. Nan.” Rose went after her 
sister and pulled her to one side. “ Oh, Anne,” she 
began in a low voice, still keeping hold of her arm, 

“ I and then she realized blankly that she did 

not know what she wanted to say. “ I — oh, you 
know I didn’t mean it when I called your carriage 
an ark; it really looks awfully good to me 
to-day.” 

“ \^y, I didn’t mind,” responded Anne, looking 
at her in surprise. It was so like Rose to have 
called it that, and so unlike her to see any reason 
for apology that, for a moment, she was puzzled. 
Then her quick sympathy supplied the key. It’s 
dandy of you to go with him, Posy. I rather sus- 
pect you’d like to be with us,” she said under her 
breath. 

“ Crazy to.” Rose was so grateful for this ap- 
preciation of the situation that she felt like hugging 
Anne. “ You see, I couldn’t let him think I was 

175 


THE SHELDON SIX 


making myself go,” she mumbled; “and when 
he isn’t smiling he seems such a deep dark 
blue.” 

Anne nodded, and this time it was her restrain- 
ing hand which held her sister. “ You’re a trump. 
Posy,” she murmured, and then, loud enough for 
the rest to hear, “ that’ll be all right; I think just 
as you do about it. If we get there first we’ll tell 
them you’re coming.” 

“ ‘ Get there first ’ ! ” repeated Rose as she 
stepped into the automobile, feeling all at once 
quite light-hearted, and firmly determined to raise 
the mental thermometer of the boy beside her. “ I 
wouldn’t insult Miss Dean’s car by hinting that 
your fiery steed could beat it.” 

Mr. Bonaparte flicked an inquiring ear in her 
direction and, in spite of the fact that he was 
usually distinctly unwilling to leave home, pranced 
off at his most rapid pace almost before Ellis was 
ready for him. 

“ That old thing is positively weird,” Rose said 
with a laugh as the car started. “ I bet he’ll keep 
the middle of the road so that we can’t pass without 
running over them all.” 

“ It would hurt me to have to do that, wouldn’t 
it you?” responded Neil, looking as sober as if he 
had given voice to the most sensible question in the 
world. And then they both laughed, and Rose was 
176 


MILL HOLLOW 


sure the unseen thermometer had gone up a degree 
or two at a bound. 

“ We’ll be leaving their road in a few minutes,” 
Neil remarked, and then, “ What’s your friend’s 
name? Bradford? I didn’t quite get it.” 

“ No, Bradley. Archibald Bradley, Junior, 
when we want to be very grand.” 

“ I was just fancying that he looked something 
like a boy named Bradford in my prep, school. 
They always called him ‘ little Brad,’ and there was 
a big Bradford, too. Now here’s where we turn 
off and say farewell to the others. We’re going to 
Mill Hollow to leave these bundles for Miss 
Dean.” 

“ That’s where Pete and Reddy live, isn’t it? We 
haven’t seen it yet. The neighbors said it wasn’t a 
pretty road to take.” 

“ It isn’t. And it isn’t a pretty place to see,” 
Neil answered soberly. ‘‘ But Miss Dean’s got 
after it now and when she takes a hand there’s 
something doing. This summer she’s found a 
woman and her husband who are willing to live 
there and teach those foreign women how to take 
care of their children and their houses.” 

“ Ugh ! I should think they’d hate doing it,” 
Rose said with an involuntary shudder. “ I can’t 
stand dirty sticky children.” 

Miss Dean goes over herself as often as she 
177 


THE SHELDON SIX 


can,” Neil went on, “ and Ellen is going to teach 
some of the girls to sew. That’s what made me 
think about getting the boys together. If you 
start with one or two, you know, they’re sure to 
bring in others.” 

“ Tell me about Pete and Reddy,” demanded 
Rose, forgetting her desire to avoid this subject. 
“ Did Pete bring his nickel, and did Reddy ‘ clean 
hisself’?” 

“ They sure did — both of ’em,” chuckled Neil, 
and Rose’s inner self observed approvingly, “ ther- 
mometer going up.” “ The nickel was so bright 
where Pete had scrubbed it on his trousers that I 
thought at first he was trying to palm off another 
one on me, but I remembered the date. And Reddy 
shone almost as much as the coin. He was a little 
cleaner than Pete, and he had a tired air as if Pete 
had taken a hand in polishing him.” Neil was smil- 
ing over the recollection. 

“ Tell me what you did,” urged Rose, feeling 
that this enlivening conversation must be con- 
tinued. She was so absorbed that she had given 
scarcely a glance to the beautiful country through 
which they had been passing since they had turned 
from the main road, and had waved a good-bye to 
Mr. Bonaparte’s family. 

“ Well, I can’t say that we actually did much. 
We talked a little and got acquainted. But I’m 
178 


MILL HOLLOW 


afraid the party wouldn’t have amounted to much 
if I hadn’t thought to introduce Hegan to them, 
and put ’em on honor to see that none of the Mill 
Hollow boys did him any harm.” Neil was speak- 
ing in a low tone so that Hegan, on the front seat, 
should not hear, and his eyes twinkled. “ You 
should have seen him when I did that. He turned 
so red I was actually scared, but he never cracked 
a smile. Just looked at ’em as if he was really 
afraid they might not be good to him, and shook 
hands with them. 

“And then he gave me the surprise of my young 
life,” Neil went on quickly, “ by hauling out two 
brand-new knives — pretending he had found ’em in 
his pocket — and he taught those kids the beginning 
of making a boat. Mind you, he spent his own 
money for the knives, which I thought was mighty 
good of him.” 

“ I should say so,” murmured Rose, contemplat- 
ing Hegan’s broad back with admiration. “ I sup- 
pose they liked the ice-cream and ” 

“ Did they! You should have seen them. Ellen 
baked little cakes and made the ice-cream, and 
Hegan froze it. You see, it wasn’t really my party 
after all.” Neil stopped, and a hint of bitterness 
stole into his face. “ I thought I was going to do 
so much for them,” he muttered, as if his self-dis- 
satisfaction must come out, “ and, after all, they 
179 


THE SHELDON SIX 


wouldn’t have had any use for me except for the 
ice-cream and Hegan’s knives.” 

“Well, what did you expect?” Rose asked 
severely. “ Didn’t you always like the ‘ eats ’ best 
when you were small? Anyway, you started the 
others, and that’s a good deal. You’ll have to think 
up something specially interesting that will fit in 
with the knives and the ice-cream.” 

“ Yes’m.” Neil was meekness itself. “ What 
would you suggest? ” 

“ I said you’d have to think it up; I believe I 
could, though. Suppose you should tell them a 
story while they’re making their boats, and each 
time stop at a terribly exciting place. Oh, I know 
that’s old, but I bet it would work.” 

Neil looked at her approvingly, and some of his 
former enthusiasm was in the glance. “ Help me 
hunt up a story, will you? There’s a nice little 
library in the town.” 

“ Oh, Anne’s the reader in our family. She’d 
like to help you find 

“ There you go again,” interrupted Neil with 
a grin. “ So self-forgetful. Always thinking of 
your family first. I shall ask Anne, and perhaps 
she’ll tell me what I can get you to do.” 

“ No, she won’t; she’ll do it herself. Anne isn’t 
my kind,” Rose answered shortly. Somehow, 
though she knew it was not intended, his words 
i8o 


MILL HOLLOW 


carried a sting. She was glad that the next mo- 
ment the automobile made a sudden turn, thus giv- 
ing her a chance to stop talking and look about 
her. 

“ Oh, is this Mill Hollow that we’re coming to 
now?” They were in a cleft between two hills, 
and the road was rapidly descending. “ Why — 
why, we seem to be leaving the sunshine behind us,” 
she said with an involuntary shiver. 

“ It would seem so, in more ways than one, if 
you knew more about it,” answered Neil. ‘‘ You 
see, someone owned this land who didn’t mind what 
happened to it so long as he could make money. 
And he sold it to men who put mills here, and 
brought a lot of foreign workmen without caring in 
the least how they live.” 

It was truly a hollow. Rose decided as she gazed, 
and the wonderful hills seemed to frame it frown- 
ingly instead of protectingly. It was a fact that 
the people living in it could not have as much sun- 
shine as they needed, for even now, scarcely past 
the middle of the afternoon, the sun seemed nearly 
ready to drop behind one of the hills. The two mill 
buildings looked in good repair, but the houses 
needed paint and repairing, and had the air of be- 
ing forlornly conscious of their deficiencies. The 
one nearest to them as they approached the little 
settlement was built after the pattern of the others, 

i8i 


THE SHELDON SIX 


but shone in the radiance of fresh paint, and had 
the appearance of being cared for. 

“ Someone,” said Rose with a sigh of relief, 
‘‘ someone seems to be trying to make things a little 
better.” 

“ That’s the house we’re going to — ^where Mr. 
and Mrs. Rand live. They’ve made all that im- 
provement themselves.” 

As they stopped before the house, a youngish 
woman, whose face Rose liked at once, came out to 
the car. “ Oh, IMr. Neil,” she said, pleasantly 
acknowledging the introduction to his companion, 
“ I’m so thankful to have those bundles of material. 
Ten women have promised to come this afternoon 
and seven are already here, and I was so afraid 
things would give out. I wish I might ask you to 
come in, Miss Sheldon,” she went on, turning to 
Rose, “ but you see I want them to feel that this is 
just a neighborly affair, and that they’re not to be 
looked at by strangers.” 

Rose smiled and nodded understandingly, at the 
same time feeling that they couldn’t possibly dis- 
like having her look at them more than she should 
hate to do it. Just this one small corner of Mill 
Hollow, this clean little house with its neat yard 
and the beginning of a garden, looked as if human 
beings might live in it. The other untidy houses, 
the slatternly women poking unkempt heads out of 
182 


MILL HOLLOW 

the windows, the dirty children, filled her with 
horror. 

A group of girls drew her gaze, and she singled 
out particularly one whose dark eyes seemed to 
compel her own. The child wore a skirt that came 
to her ankles and was fringed into rags around the 
bottom, where it disclosed shoes much too large for 
her. A soiled waist, torn and gaping, hung loosely, 
and was partly concealed by a tangled mass of 
black hair. At first glance her face seemed sad, 
and she was intensely absorbed in her scrutiny of 
Rose. Then, with a quick movement, she flung 
back her untidy hair, laughed shrilly, and scam- 
pered off with the others at her heels. 

“ Do let’s hurry,” Rose said with a shudder, 
turning appealingly to Neil as Mrs. Rand went 
back into the house to superintend the disposal of 
the packages. “ Isn’t this the most awful 
place? Why do they let these people live here like 
this?” 

“ We’ll have to wait a few minutes,” Neil an- 
swered, “ because Mr. Rand wants help in moving 
some heavy furniture. That’s why I brought 
Hegan. You see,” he explained, “ the town can’t 
exactly turn these people out. So Miss Dean and 
some others are trying to make the place better for 
them. And, by Jinks, I believe they’re accom- 
plishing something. Do you see that? ” He was 

183 


THE SHELDON SIX 


pointing excitedly; “see where somebody’s begun 
to dig in the yard next to Mrs. Rand’s? I bet he’s 
caught the garden fever. I must tell that to Miss 
Eunice.” 

Turning to look, Rose saw nothing of what Neil 
was pointing out, but gazed instead at the dark- 
haired girl, who had come stealthily around from 
behind the car, and was staring at Rose as if she had 
never seen anything like her. As Rose turned, the 
child drew a deep breath and murmured something 
quite unintelligible; her eyes, black and sparkling, 
were more understandable, and seemed to say that 
it was beyond comprehension that anyone could be 
so beautiful as the vision in the automobile seemed 
to her. 

“ What is it, Lissy? What do you want? ” asked 
Mrs. Rand, who had come up behind her unob- 
served. 

The girl whipped around in a flash, made an 
impish face at sight of Mrs. Rand, turned for one 
more yearning look at Rose, and was off so swiftly 
that their eyes lost her almost at once. 

“ That’s a queer girl,” commented Mrs. Rand. 
“ I haven’t been able to get at her yet. She either 
makes life miserable for the other children or else 
fascinates them so that they do whatever she says. 
You saw how she looked at me. That’s usually 
what I get, but the other day she found a flower, 
184 


MILL HOLLOW 

apparently one she hadn’t seen before, and she came 
with tears in her eyes to point out its beauties to me. 
And the next time I met her she made the worst 
face I had ever seen.” Mrs. Rand ended with a 
jolly laugh and a determined nod. ‘‘ I’ll find the 
way to the girl inside of her some day, see if I 
don’t.” 

“ Of course you will,” Neil said admiringly, and 
then, “ She seemed to think Miss Rose about the 
finest thing she’s seen up to date.” 

Rose flushed. “ It surprised me so to find her 
there that I couldn’t do anything but stare. I wish 
I had smiled at her,” she said with regret, and then 
was afraid it was a foolish thing to say. 

Mrs. Rand did not seem to think so, however. 
“ Make us a special visit and smile at Lissy,” she 
suggested, and would have said more, but Hegan 
and the driver came back at that moment, and she 
hastily gave Neil a message for Miss Dean. 

Rose breathed a sigh of relief as the car hurried 
them along on the road toward the sunshine. It 
would take more than smiles, she was thinking, to 
have any effect in a place like this. She hoped 
fervently that she should never have to go there 
again. The wish seemed cowardly to her, even as 
she made it, but she could not help feeling that way. 
Some persons, she decided, didn’t mind those things 
as much as she did. “ Oh, fudge, that’s an ‘Aunt- 
185 


THE SHELDON SIX 


Harrietism ’ of the worst kind,” her inner mind put 
in with such distinctness that it seemed almost as if 
her companion might hear it, too. 

“ Tough, isn’t it?” Neil said in belated answer 
to her sigh. He also had been busy with his 
thoughts. “ That’s why Ellen and I are anxious 
to get hold of the children. If we can only give 

them a boost ” he left his sentence unfinished 

as if sure that Rose would understand. 

“ My, but it seems good to be out of that shut-in 
place,” she said, as the car swept up the hill and 
after a little turned in a new direction. “ I never 
supposed these farms and these nice clean houses 
could look so — so perfectly sweet to me.” There 
was a quaver in her voice which she deeply resented, 
but could not prevent, and she sat up very straight 
and tried to shut from her mind everything but the 
pleasant country through which they were going. 
After a while she realized that Neil seemed 
strangely quiet, and was nervously clenching his 
hands. 

“ Do you — do you expect to stay long at your 
friend’s camp? ” he asked suddenly. 

“ Well, it’s a secret from the other boys, but I’ll 
tell you.” Rose was so glad to have something 
pleasant to think of that she fairly beamed at him. 
“We tucked a basket of good things into the car- 
riage without letting even Ellis know, and we’re 
186 


MILL HOLLOW 

going to have our supi^er at the camp. Don^t you 
think it will be fun? ’’ 

Neil looked more worried than pleased. “Aw- 
fully jolly, of course,” he said after a moment, but 
his troubled face made the words unconvincing. 
“ You see, I have a message to give to Miss Dean, 
and — and I’m not much good at picnic suppers 
nowadays. I think, if you don’t mind, I’d better 
just — just go home before the others get here.” 
He managed to smile, but it was a queer, twisted 
smile which Rose could scarcely bear to see, and 
which made her long desperately to set things right 
for him. 

“ Oh, but I do mind,” she began. “ The boys 
will be crazy to ask you about the best drives around 
here, and about fishing and — and hiking.” It did 
not need his quick shrug to make her see that she 
was not bettering the situation. “ I should think 
you might stay,” she went on pleadingly. “ I want 
you to meet Roger and Mr. Pearson. They 
are 

“ Great Scott! More ” broke in Neil, and 

was himself interrupted, because just then the car 
made a sudden turn into the driveway leading to a 
small house, and came to a standstill in front of the 
porch. 

“ Why, this can’t be the place,” Rose said in dis- 
may. “ I was sure they had tents ” and then 

187 


THE SHELDON SIXi 

it occurred to her that she had no reason to be so 
decided about it, for Archie had mentioned neither 
tent nor house. 

“ Those trees off there,” said the chauffeur, point- 
ing to a wooded knoll some little distance away, 
“ are what they call Spear’s Oaks, and this is the 
farm they belong to. It don’t look much as if 
folks was to home, though. I’ll go ’round the back 
and see if I can find anyone.” Hegan followed as 
the driver got out of the car and they both dis- 
appeared. 

“ Isn’t it polite in this part of the world to go to 
the front door? ” Rose asked, looking puzzled. 

Before Neil could answer the two men came back 
again. “ Nobody there. I knocked two or three 
times,” reported the chauffeur. 

Rose jumped out of the car. “ I’m going to try 
the front door,” she said, and took a step in that 
direction. Then she turned to Neil. “ If the door 
is open I’m going in,” she asserted boldly. “ If I 
go out of sight of you — ^you won’t slip off and leave 
me, will you? ” 

‘‘What do you take me for? I should say I 
wouldn’t. Besides, I couldn’t just at this moment.” 
He pointed to Hegan and Fred, who had walked a 
short distance away, and with their backs to the 
automobile were gazing at the farm-lands. 

“ All right, then. So long as you can’t. I’ll 
188 


MILL HOLLOW 

trust you,” Rose replied saucily. “ Now watch 
me!” 

She went up on the porch feeling all the while 
that some stranger must surely appear and demand 
her errand. Her first knock met with no response, 
and her second, a bolder one this time, was no more 
successful. Then she cautiously tried the door. 

“ It’s not locked. If I get taken up for break- 
ing into a house will you stand up for me? ” she 
called back, and without waiting for an answer, 
opened the door softly and stepped inside. 

The front hall was small with two doors opening 
from it, and Rose half-expected that some indignant 
person would issue from one of the rooms or come 
down the narrow stairway which confronted her. 
She waited a moment, then, as no one appeared, 
she went to the doorway of the room on the left. 
In it was a sagging sofa, shiny and slippery in its 
haircloth covering; a tall stove, cold and uninviting; 
a chair or two, and a dingy carpet, which once, per- 
haps, was resplendent. The chill primness of it 
all affronted her, and she turned quickly to the 
other side of the hall. 

As she poked her head through the doorway of 
the right-hand room, her first glance fell on a 
capacious couch, on which a boy was sleeping with 
his face turned away, and only a curly dark head 
to tell her who he was. 


THE SHELDON SIX 


Before she could speak he rolled over, yawned, 
opened his eyes to stare at her sleepily, and then, in 
a trice, was on his feet, limping toward her, and 
looking as if he scarcely believed she were real. 

“ Hello, Roger Bradley,” Rose said promptly. 
“You’d better wake up; you’re going to have a 
party.” 

Roger smiled at her, blinking in spite of himself ; 
then, as an afterthought, he shook hands. He was 
a little older than Rose, but with his tousled hair 
and sleep-filled eyes he looked younger. 

“ Say, you just pulled me right out of a dream,” 
he murmured, swallowing a yawn. “ Did — did 
anyone knock? ” 

“ Not more than three persons, so far as I know,” 
Rose answered with perfect seriousness, though her 
eyes laughed. 

“ That’s one on me all right. I dreamed some- 
one was knocking, and that it was someone I wanted 
to see awfully, but I hated like mischief to get up, 

and ” another yawn obscured the rest of it. 

“Wait a sec,” he muttered, and disappeared into 
an adjoining room, from whence, a moment later, 
came the sound of running water and a vigorous 
splashing. 

“ There, now I can really see you,” he grinned, 
coming back with his face glowing, and his hair 
sprinkled with water. “ Before, you looked large 
190 


MILL HOLLOW. 


and dim and — ^and wavy, you know. How did you 
get here, and where are the other Sheldons? ” 

“ On the way — some of them. I came in an 
automobile, and they are driving a slow-poke of a 
horse. They’ll be here soon. Come out and meet 
the boy in the car.” 

Almost at the front door Rose turned so ab- 
ruptly that she just missed stepping on Roger. 
“ He’s had an accident — ^he can’t walk at all, 
Roger. I thought I ought to tell you,” she said 
under her breath, and the next moment they were 
out on the porch. 


CHAPTER XI 


LITTLE BRAD 

“ Neil^ this is ” Rose began, but the words 

were taken out of her mouth by Roger’s sudden 
jump to the running-board, and his cry of “ Ram- 
say! Well, Ramsay, I never dreamed of anything 
so fine as seeing you.” 

“ It is little Brad, after all,” said Neil, smiling 
and flushing under the younger boy’s admiring 
gaze. “ I thought all the time your name was 
Bradford, youngster. Stupid of me to make such 
a mistake.” 

“ Well, of course, you didn’t know me so well as 
I — as I knew about you,” Roger went on, shaking 
hands all over again in his joy. “ Great Scott! I 
wish Arch would get here, and that Mr. Pearson 
would come back. He’s gone for a walk and he 
told me to rest my foot. We’ve sure got to have 
some kind of a celebration now that Ramsay’s here.” 

“Will you listen to that!” Rose exclaimed. 
“ How about the Sheldons, I should like to know? ” 

“ Oh, of course, they’re all right,” grinned Roger, 
192 


LITTLE BRAD 


not at all abashed. “ They can celebrate, too. But 
this is ‘ Ram.’ ” He paused and looked at the 
older boy as if not quite certain whether it would 
do for him to use the nickname, then went on. 
“ Ramsay was king-pin at prep, school, you know.” 

“ It’s all very well to say ‘ you know,’ but how 
should I? ” Rose retorted. “ You were as mum as 
an oyster about school. I didn’t suppose you liked 
anyone there, nor ” 

“ There was always Ramsay,” Roger inter- 
rupted, smiling at her. “ Go on, Rose, I like to 
see you get excited. Oh, I say, isn’t that the car- 
riage coming now? Yes, sir, I see Anne,” and he 
was off to meet them, limping as he ran. 

Neil looked relieved. Rose thought. She fancied 
it had been hard for him to stand this talk about 
school, and she was glad the others were coming. 

“ Little Brad was the forlornest youngster you 
could imagine. I used to feel sorry for him,” said 
Neil when Roger was out of hearing. ‘‘ I never 
saw such a change in a boy. I suppose he would 
say the same about me, though.” 

“ He seems to think you’re something pretty 
fine.” 

“ He’s thinking of what I was — ^not what I am 
now,” the boy answered bitterly, and looked so de- 
jected that Rose’s hopes as to a permanent rise in 
the thermometer went all to smash. It was a relief 

193 


THE SHELDON SIX 


just then to find Ellis at her shoulder, chuckling 
over Mr. Bonaparte’s queer actions. 

“ The old thing balked at every hill we came to,” 
he said to Neil. “ I think his feelings were hurt 
because he couldn’t keep your car behind him all 
the way.” 

Archie, coming along at this moment, shook 
hands again with Neil. “ My kid brother thinks I 
should have known at once that you are the Ramsay 
he’s always talking about,” he said heartily. 
“ Look at him now tearing off to meet Mr. Pear- 
son and tell him you’re here.” 

“ I had no idea he had ever thought twice about 
me,” Neil answered, “ but I’m mighty glad to find 
him again. I always liked little Brad.” He was 
making an evident effort to speak heartily, too, but 
Rose, standing near, wondered if it made him more 
unhappy to be with these strong, active boys. A 
moment later, Archie and Ellis having moved away, 
she saw that he wanted to say something to her, 
and she went close to the automobile. 

“ Would you — ^would you mind if I should leave 
you here? ” he asked, trying to smile. “ I know it 

isn’t very polite but ” he stopped and gave up 

the smile as a bad job. “ I just can’t stand it,” he 
said abruptly. “ This is the first time I’ve been 

with boys my size since ” he paused again and 

then went on dis jointedly. “ It’s been a bad day for 
194 


LITTLE BRAD 


me — didn’t sleep any last night — I was all in when 
Miss Dean sent the car, but Ellen thought it would 
make me feel better, so I came. I — I think you’ll 
have to help me make a getaway.” 

Rose had been thinking fast all the time Neil had 
been talking. She mustn’t tell him how sorry she 
felt for him — that was out of the question. She 
could of course make excuses for him to the others 
and let him go home directly. Perhaps she should 
have to do that in the end, but there was a bigger 
purpose tugging at her mind: she wanted to try to 
help him fight this feeling — she hated to have him 
give up to it and go away. 

‘‘ I do mind and I’m awfully disappointed,” she 
began, feeling her way. “We’re only going to 
stay until about seven o’clock. Don’t you think 
you could manage to put up with us till that 
time? ” 

Neil looked relieved. “ I’m afraid I ought not 
to keep Miss Dean’s car so long as that,” he said 
decidedly, “ and Ellen expects me for supper; she 
might be anxious.” He brightened visibly with 
two such good reasons at his command. 

Rose hung on tenaciously. “ Let’s send over and 
get Ellen,” she proposed. “ Her hair will be dry 
by this time. And then the chauffeur can ask Miss 
Dean if he may come back for you at seven. I 
know she’ll let him.” 


*95 


THE SHELDON SIX 

Neil knew she would, too. And it would be good 
fun for Ellen to come. 

“ The boys can whisk that couch out on the porch 
for you in a jiffy,” Rose pleaded. “ We’re not go- 
ing to do anything but sit around and talk and eat.” 
She laughed suddenly. “ If you get away from me 
there’ll be little Brad to settle with. I can see 
him coming with Mr. Pearson.” 

Neil looked worried, and she hurried on. An- 
other argument had occurred to her — it frightened 
her to think of using it — but it came out in her 
bluntest manner. “ I don’t see,” she said doubt- 
fully, “ I don’t see how you’re going to help other 
people get over their troubles, if you can’t fight 
your own.” And then she realized that her cheeks 
were hot and her hands cold and her throat dry. It 
had taken courage to say that. She could read in 
Neil’s face that he was astonished, hurt — thank 
goodness, he was a little angry, too ; that made her 
feel better. She hoped he would say something 
crushing in return, and then she could go on argu- 
ing. But if he were meek or pathetic 

“ I’ll stay,” he said with a sort of frosty stiff- 
ness. “ I’ll have Hegan put me on the couch be- 
fore he goes for Ellen.” 

From that moment Rose had a new respect for 
boys, not only because Neil was doing just what 
she thought he ought to do, but because Ellis and 
196 


LITTLE BRAD 


Archie played uj) so beautifully. As soon as she 
suggested it, the old couch, on which Roger had 
been sleeping, was moved to the pleasantest corner 
of the porch. In the clear afternoon light it looked 
shabby and humbly aware of its general bumpiness, 
and Archie surveyed it with dissatisfaction. 

“ Hold on a minute,” he said, rushing into the 
house, and flinging back the vague information that 
he’d ‘‘ fix it.” In a few minutes he was back with 
a thin, narrow mattress which he laid over the hills 
and valleys of the old couch. Over this he spread 
a Navajo blanket, and then beamed at the group 
around him. 

‘‘ Quite a fancy little couch — ^what? ” he de- 
manded with a pleased smile. ‘‘ I brought that 
blanket with me thinking it might come in handy. 
I’ve got some cushions stuffed in the same trunk.” 
He was off and back again in an unbelievably short 
time with some pillows covered with gay cretonnes. 

‘‘ Talk about getting ready for company in a 
hurry,” he remarked with an air of pride. “ I think 
I’m some little wizard at that.” 

‘‘ I never saw any wizard so conceited as you 
are,” Rose observed with crushing promptness, and 
then softened her remark with, “ You did that 
rather well, though.” 

“ Thanks, lady. Once in a while you fling a kind 
word at me, don’t you? Say, this corner of the 
197 


THE SHELDON SIX 


porch isn’t so bad now, is it? We’ll have more 
chairs here as soon as we get Ramsay settled on his 
throne.” He turned to smile at Neil, who had been 
watching proceedings with interest. 

“ I’ll tell Hegan we’re ready,” offered Connie, 
but Ellis stopped her. “ Come on, Arch,” he said 
under his breath, then swung himself over the porch 
railing, and the next moment was at the side of the 
automobile. 

‘‘ Let Archie and me carry you, won’t you, 
Neil? ” he begged. “We want to have good times 
together this summer, and you may as well get used 
to having us tote you ’round.” 

For a moment Neil looked blankly opposed to 
this proposal, and Hegan, who had come back to 
the automobile, shook his head soberly. 

“ Is there any trick about it? Are we likely to 
hurt you? ” Ellis persisted, much to the surprise of 
his sisters. Somehow he had got it into his head 
that if he and Archie could do this it would bring 
Neil into closer partnership at once, and, perhaps, 
take away that unhappy look. Since he had been 
so anxious about his father, Ellis had begun to think 
of things like this. 

“ No, you won’t hurt me. We might let ’em try 
it, Hegan,” Neil answered, and the big man stepped 
aside, not very willingly it seemed. 

To Rose’s joy, the two boys managed it as if 
198 


LITTLE BRAD 


they’d been doing such things all their lives, and 
deposited Neil so gently on the old sofa that even 
Hegan, who was following anxiously, looked 
satisfied. 

“ Now, Hegan, you’re to bring Miss Ellen, and 
you know what to say to Miss Dean about Mill 
Hollow,” Neil said, looking happier already. 
“And, of course, if she wants her car for anything 
I’ll go home whenever you can get back here for 
me.” His face sobered as he voiced this last; even 
so soon as this he had begun to feel the atmosphere 
of comradeship and jollity, and he wanted to stay. 

“No! No! We won’t let you go,” protested 
Ellis. 

“Archie can patch up the flivver and take you 
over if it comes to that,” said Roger, and dropped 
down on the porch in front of the couch, as if he 
would bar its occupant from leaving. 

The others grouped themselves, some on the 
floor, some on the porch railing; Anne and Mr. 
Pearson, who looked as friendly and smiling as she 
remembered him, rejoiced in the comfort of chairs. 
Rose settled down as far away from the sofa as she 
could get and still be a part of the circle. In spite 
of the fact that Neil looked so contented she wasn’t 
sure that he had forgiven her for trying to manage 
him. and she preferred to keep out of his way for a 
while. 


199 


THE SHELDON SIX 


Something suggested to Archie an adventure 
they had had during their cruise in the Alice Bell, 
and he told it with frequent interruptions from 
Roger. 

“ Say, kid, you tell a better one if you know how,” 
Archie said good-naturedly as he finished his story. 
“ YouVe pretty well spoiled mine.” 

Roger, who was a born teller of tales, frowned 
impatiently. “ You left out so many little points 
that made it exciting,” he explained. “ I sup- 
pose I did keep jumping in — but, say, that re- 
minds me of the time you and I got lost. I’ll tell 
that and you may stop me if you like.” 

But neither Archie nor anyone else wanted to 
interrupt this story, for Roger held them breathless, 
made them shiver, and finally disposed of a real 
mystery by bringing it out so that the laugh came 
on both his brother and himself. 

“ There’s every word true,” Archie declared. “ I 
hoped he was going to embroider it a little so that I 
could call him down. Would you ever believe I 
was such a chump as to get taken in that way? ” 

“ Oh, I don’t know,” Anne answered thought- 
fully, and then looked aghast at Ellis’ roar of 
laughter. “ I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. 
That was really mysterious, and anyone might have 
been fooled by it — even Archie.” 

“ ‘ Even Archie ’! Now will you be good after 
200 


LITTLE BRAD 

such a compliment as that?” demanded Rose. 
“ Oh, I’d like to go off and have adventures ! 
Can’t you tell us one, Mr. Pearson? ” 

“ I could — some day I will, but I just caught a 
glimpse of an automobile, and I think Miss Ram- 
say must be coming.” 

“ There it is,” said Connie. “After they’ve 
passed that clump of trees you’ll see them. I saw 
Ellen.” 

“Good! That means Neil can stay,” exulted 
Roger. “ Of course she wouldn’t come just to go 
back again.” 

“ Well, if you knew Miss Eunice you’d be sure 
she’d send her car if she possibly could,” Rose said, 
and then, realizing that she had not always felt in 
this way about Miss Dean, she glanced from Anne 
to Ellis to see if they were laughing at her. They 
were only looking eagerly for Ellen, and she as- 
sured herself that it wouldn’t have troubled her if 
they did think her changeable — about this. 

Out from behind the clump of trees came the 
automobile, then swiftly along a level stretch of 
road, and at last, with a fine sweep, up the short 
rise which led to the house. 

“ Makes me think of the way Mr. Bony goes up 
a hill,” chuckled Ellis, hurrying to take a package 
Ellen was holding. 

“ Will you be very careful of it? ” she demanded 
201 


THE SHELDON SIX 


before giving it up. “ It’s my latest attempt at a 
cake; I thought it would be good for supper.” 

“ I’ll walk on my tiptoes,” promised Ellis, and 
turning too quickly, so tangled his feet that he 
barely saved himself from falling. “ Great Scott! 
Do you suppose I joggled it too much? ” Then, 
looking down, “ I ought to have tracks for my feet 
to run on,” he muttered disgustedly. “ Great, 
clumsy things ! ” 

“ Don’t scold them so long as they’ll move when 
you want them to,” Ellen said under her breath. 
And then, before any of the others reached them, 
“ Hegan told me how you teased Neil into letting 
you carry him. Hegan didn’t like it, of course, but 
I understood, and I think it was fine.” 

“ I — I thought it would make him feel as if — as 
if he belonged to the gang,” stammered Ellis, even 
in the midst of his embarrassment deciding that this 
girl was the right sort, and that he wanted to do a 
lot more to help her about her brother. He would 
have liked to tell her so, but he didn’t know how to 
say it, and anyway the others were too near now. 

It being half-past five they decided to have sup- 
per at once. Ellen unwrapped her cake cautiously, 
hoping that Ellis’ tiptoe dance had not damaged it. 
It was a large round cake, frosted with chocolate, 
and with dabs of marshmallow studding its smooth 
brown surface. 


202 


LITTLE BRAD 


“Do you mean to say you made that?” ques- 
tioned Ellis in an awestruck tone, immediately sit- 
ting down beside her. “ You had to button on that 
chocolate with those dinky white buttons, didn’t 
you? I always thought I should like to begin my 
supper with a cake like that.” 

“ You’ve got another think coming,” Rose de- 
clared. A table had been brought from the house 
and put within reach of the sofa, and she and Anne 
were unpacking their basket. “We didn’t plan 
ahead for this party, so you’ll have to be thankful 
for what you get,” she went on. “ Of course there 
are hard-boiled eggs; it wouldn’t be a picnic with- 
out those.” 

“ There are fresh cookies — two kinds; and if you 
don’t want eggs here are thin slices of ham,” re- 
marked Anne, and added with a laugh, “ we had to 
slice it thin.” 

“ Mayn’t we have both? ” Roger asked eagerly. 
“ Mr. Pearson and I didn’t invite ourselves out to 
dinner the way Arch did.” 

“ Food does look pretty good to us, doesn’t it, 
Roger? You see our supplies are slow in coming,” 
Mr. Pearson explained, “ and Archie went off so 
unexpectedly this morning that I didn’t have a 
chance to tell him to lay in a stock at the store. So 
this party happens just at the right time.” 

“ I move that the Sheldons and the Ramsays each 
203 


THE SHELDON SIX 


give up something, and then there’ll be enough left 
for breakfast at Camp Bradley,” suggested Neil. 
“ I’ll contribute two hard-boiled eggs.” 

“ How noble of him — he doesn’t eat eggs,” mur- 
mured his sister, who was hugging to herself the 
knowledge that Neil looked happier than he had in 
a l«ng time. 

“ I’ll d# without everything but the cake with 
white buttons on it ; if you’ll let me have enough of 
that to make up,” Ellis offered. “ That ought not 
to be left, anyway, because it isn’t proper to have 
cake for breakfast.” 

“ Don’t want it,” retorted Archie. “At least I 
don’t want it until I’ve had my first course.” 

“ You may have my piece if there isn’t enough 
to go ’round,” Connie promised, passing Archie an- 
other biscuit. “ Don’t you hurry; you eat all of the 
first part you want, and I’ll see that you get some 
cake.” 

“ Connie! I’m your best friend in this family. 
Are you going back on me that way? ” Roger was 
pathetic in tone and expression. 

“ Don’t you worry, my dear; I’ve kept back two 
pieces,” Connie explained in her motherly fashion. 
“ You see I was afraid that if it didn’t hold out you 
and Archie would think you must refuse, because 
the party’s at your house.” 

“ Say, Connie! I wish you wouldn’t expect so 
204 


LITTLE BRAD 

mucfi of your friends.” Archie stopped eating for 
as much as a minute and looked aggrieved. “ I 
haven’t got used to this place yet — it didn’t occur 
to me that this is our party, and — and the air makes 
us awfully hungry.” 

“ It isn’t your party; you’re just providing the 
ptrch,” Anne said consolingly. “Have another 
egg.” 

“ Nan, you and Connie are too gentle with those 
boys. You’ll spoil them,” scolded Rose. “ You 
ought to expect more of them — brace ’em up.” She 
was passing cookies, piled dangerously high on a 
wooden plate, and she reached the sofa just as she 
spoke the last words. 

“ That’s your specialty, isn’t it? Being a bracer, 
I mean,” inquired the occupant of the sofa mean- 
ingly, and surprised by the question. Rose looked 
down to find him regarding her with the old friendly 
grin. In her embarrassment she tilted the plate 
and showered cookies over the questioner. 

“ You’re wasting ’em,” complained Roger, deftly 
catching two or three. “ Talk about spoiling peo- 
ple. What do you call that? ” 

“ My fault,” Neil declared promptly. “ I both- 
ered the lady. You haven’t come out badly on the 
deal, little Brad.” 

“ No,” admitted Roger, finishing the last cooky 
with obvious effort, and looking absurdly sorrowful 
205 


< } 

THE SHELDON SIX 

over his diminishing capacity. “ I’m afraid I 
really can’t eat another thing.” 

“ Well, that’s good,” Anne began, “ I mean I’m 
glad there will be something left for your break- 
fast. I was beginning be afraid ” 

“ That our neighbors would have to invite us 
after all? ” questioned Archie with a laugh. “ Not 
on your life. I’m going to be a mfdel to-morrow — 
get up bright and early — clean the car and drive 
over to that nice store you pointed out to me this 
afternoon. I admit I was a slacker to-day.” 

“No one can be good all the time.” Connie came 
quickly to the defense, and couldn’t understand why 
they all laughed. 

“ Oh, Connie, I’m in luck to have such a friend as 
you are,” Archie said, and her ruffled feelings were 
soothed at once. “ Let’s walk over to the Oaks — 
some of us,” he went on. “ I want to show you 
what we think will be a great place for Uncle to 
build his house.” 

“ Count me out,” drawled Ellis. “ I’m mighty 
thankful to sit still. Gardening isn’t all it’s cracked 
up to be. At least it’s no rest-cure.” He pulled a 
chair over to the couch and settled himself with an 
air of enjoyment. “ Go on, you others, and don’t 
feel obliged to hurry back. Neil and I can get 
along without you.” 

Roger was torn between his desire to stay with 
206 


I I I 

LITTLE BRAD 

Neil and his eagerness to go with the others. As 
they started off he walked along with Rose and be- 
gan to talk at once in a confidential tone. “ Say, 
Rose, did you ever hear how Ram got hurt? ” he 
asked. 

“ It happened at school; last spring, Miss Dean 
said. She didn’t tell us very much, because Neil 
won’t say anything, and Ellen can’t bear to talk 
about it.” 

“ Well, I know more than that. It was after I 
left, but a boy I met in New York told me about it. 
There was a fire in one of the buildings at night, 
and Ram went up a ladder to get a boy who was 
afraid to jump into the thing they were holding for 
him. The boy was just about out of his mind, and 
Ram had to carry him. And on the ladder he 
struggled and ” — Roger took a long breath and 
went on — “ well, they both fell, and the boy was 
hardly hurt at all, but Ram ” 

Rose shivered in sympathy. “ But they do think 
he’s going to get well some time,” she said quickly. 
“ Miss Dean told Father that the doctors believe he 
can be cured by an operation. Probably it’ll be this 
summer; they’re waiting for some doctor who is a 
friend of theirs.” 

“ So that’s what he’s got to think about while the 
rest of us are having a good time.” Roger walked 
along for a few steps in silence. “ I — I guess I’ll 
207 



THE SHELDON SIX 




’ he decided, and then, as if he were afraid 
yilose might suspect some generous impulse on his 
part, “ I forgot Mr. Pearson told me not to walk 
much to-day.” 

“All right; we shall all be back before long.” 
Rose followed on after the others with her mind 
aflame. She had thought before that Neil was a 
hero and now she was sure of it. She instantly 
pledged herself to do anything for his club that he 
wanted her to do. She could teach them basket- 
ball and hockey, she supposed, and if she didn’t 
have patience, why — she must grow some. She 
was a little vague as to what might be expected of 
her, but she was so anxious to assure Neil of her 
entire readiness to help that she half turned to run 
after Roger. But by now she had almost reached 
the others, and the little hill with its clustering oak- 
trees was near. 

“ Isn’t this a great old view? ” demanded Archie 
a few moments later. “ We think that to clear out 
some of the trees and put a house on this knoll 
would be fine.” 

“ Perfectly splendid,” Anne responded. “ You’d 
get a glorious view and nothing could shut you in.” 

The others chatted and laughed, but to Rose, in 
sharp contrast to the loveliness before her eyes, 
came the memory of the swiftly descending road 
that led between the frowning hills to Mill Hollow, 
208 


LITTLE BRAD 


and in a quick vision she saw again the dirt and 
desolation at the end of it. Here, with green fields 
stretching into the distance, beautiful in the soft 
shadows of the early evening, she could scarcely be- 
lieve the other place existed; she wished she could 
forget it. 

On the way back she made up her mind to tell 
Neil her decision about the club as soon as she 
reached the house, but Ellis and Roger were still 
with him, and Archie and Mr. Pearson joined the 
group at once. Watching them as they talked to- 
gether so absorbedly she grew impatient. “ I 
knew him before any of them did except Roger,” 
she said to herself with some irritation, “ and now 
he’ll probably like them all better than he does me. 
I don’t believe I’ll say anything about the club, 
after all.” 

Ellen coming up beside her squeezed her arm. 
“ You’re watching Neil with the boys. Isn’t it 
wonderful? ” she exulted. “ This is the first time 
I’ve seen him look really happy since — since his 
accident.” She hurried the last words as though 
it were somehow a relief to be open about the whole 
dreadful business. “ And this afternoon when he 
started out he was the bluest thing I ever saw. I 
was so afraid he couldn’t get any of you to go with 
him.” 

Rose, remembering that she had wanted to re- 
209 


THE SHELDON SIX 


fuse, rejoiced that she hadn’t. “ I’m glad he’s 
happier,” she said, “ The boys think he’s fine. I 
can’t get a word in.” 

“ Boys always have,” the little sister added with a 

proud tilt of her head. “ They ” of a sudden 

she dabbed her eyes with her small fists and laughed 
waveringly. “ See what a silly I am,” she said ap- 
pealingly, and Rose, the unsentimental, thought her 
blue eyes looked like violets. 

“ I — I can’t talk about Neil,” Ellen went on. 
“ He and I are the only ones left of our family, 
and this has been such a terrible trouble to both of 
us. But there really is hope — and all of you are 
going to do him heaps of good.” 

“ We’d like to,” Rose answered eagerly, and 
made up her mind again that she would give her 
promise as to the club. But she did not want to 
speak of it before the others, and no good chance 
came until just as they reached home. Then Ellen, 
who had been riding in Mr. Bonaparte’s carriage, 
had to change to the car, and while that was going 
on Rose found an opportunity for a few words with 
Neil. 

“ Oh, Neil,” she said quickly, “ I’m really going 
to do what you’ve been asking me; about the club, 
I mean. I’ll be ” — she laughed over the idea, but 
kept on — “ I’ll be director of athletics, or — or any 
old thing you like.” 


210 


LITTLE BRAD 


“ Fine!” answered Neil, and if there were any 
hesitation in his manner it was too slight for Rose 
to think of it until afterwards. “ I bet that club 
will be a winner. Ellis and Archie are awfully in- 
terested; Roger vows he’ll do anything I say, and 
Mr. Pearson has some great ideas about it. We 
shall be tickled to death to have you help, too.” 

“ Oh,” murmured Rose blankly, feeling that to 
be at the end of a list like that was not what she had 
counted on. For an instant she was strongly re- 
sentful. Hadn’t he teased her time after time to 
do this very thing, and now that she was ready he — 
she must say something quickly or he would guess 
that her feelings — but her feelings weren’t hurt. 
She was glad — ^very glad that things had come out 
just this way. 

“ That’s very nice,” she heard herself announcing 
with emphasis. It sounded so real to her that she 
hoped Neil wouldn’t miss anything. ‘Tt’ll be per- 
fectly fine for those boys to get busy over something 
of this kind. I’m awfully glad you went with us 
this afternoon, Neil. Good-bye.” Then she slipped 
away before he had time to answer. 

Until bedtime, which came early because they 
were all tired. Rose went around with the haunting 
consciousness that she had lost something, and 
worse still she had lost it through her own fault. 
That was the point to which her thoughts always 

2II 


THE SHELDON SIX 


returned, though there were meditative flights in 
which she felt that Neil should have consulted her 
before asking all these others; that probably now 
he didn’t want her, but was too polite to say so; 
that it really was rather mean of him to be so 
changeable. 

At the moment of turning out her light to get 
into bed, she decided that she never would let him 
know that she had any unpleasant feeling about the 
matter; if he wanted her to do anything she would 
quietly slide out of it in some way. Or, if she 
couldn’t escape, she would do it so — so gloriously 
that he would always be sorry that he hadn’t trusted 
the whole thing to her. 

It was, perhaps, this lofty vision which proved 
too much for her straightforward mind and made 
her see the fimny side of it all, for as she lay there 
in the dark, gazing out of her window into starlit 
spaces, she suddenly chuckled. “ You thought you 
were going to be the whole thing, didn’t you. Rose 
Sheldon?” she said to herself, and then, with an- 
other laugh which somehow left her at peace with 
Neil, and perfectly serene, “ Did you ever get 
left?” 


212 


CHAPTER XII 


LISSY INTRODUCES HERSELF 

“ Now, Juno, you stop pecking at Minerva and 
Venus. They’re not doing a thing to you.” Con- 
nie, who had been feeding the hens, was now con- 
cerning herself with their table-manners which were 
not of the best. “ Don’t be so greedy.” Then, as 
the aforesaid Juno administered a sharp tap of her 
beak on the head of one of her sisters — “ Stop it! 
You can’t run things here the way you tried to on 
Mount Olympus. You were always making 
trouble for someone there.” 

“For pity’s sake. Con, where did you learn so 
much about Mount Olympus?” demanded Rose, 
who had come out of the back door just in time to 
hear her sister’s remarks. 

“ School,” Connie answered briefly, her attention 
still fixed on the trouble-making J uno. “ Miss 
Hawley used to read to us about the gods and god- 
desses, and she let me take the book when I got my 
lessons ready before the others did. I think 
Mythology is a fascinating study.” 

213 


THE SHELDON SIX 


‘‘You can have it; it doesn’t fascinate me so’s 
you’d notice it. Have you named them all that 
way? ” 

“ Not yet. The big rooster is Jupiter, and this 
other one is Apollo — his voice is more musical, and 
you know he was the god of music — Apollo was, I 
mean.” 

Rose laughed. “ I didn’t think you meant the 
rooster. What’s this one? ” She pointed to a 
smooth and shining little hen who was doing her 
best to get her share of breakfast, and at the same 
time keep beyond the reach of Juno’s merciless 
beak. 

“ That’s Venus. Isn’t she a darling? I named 
her that because she’s beautiful. And see what a 
knowing-looking one this is. She’s so wise I called 
her Minerva. She and Venus are my special pets. 
Sometime I’ll show you their tricks.” 

“ All right, do. I’m going out now to get the 
asparagus for dinner, and then I’m going to weed 
the strawberry bed.” Rose felt as pleasant as the 
June morning, and so helpful and so much like 
work that every little while she was tempted to 
pinch herself to see if she were awake or dreaming 
all this. Five busy days had slipped by since the 
arrival of the Bradleys, and by this time Rose’s 
hands were well again, and she had become a full- 
fledged worker in the garden. 

214 


LISSY INTRODUCES HERSELF, 

This morning the feeling of unreality had again 
come to her strongly, and it seemed that she really 
couldn’t be the same girl who had so hated the 
thought of coming to Brookfield. A fleeting 
memory danced through her mind and made her 
smile. 

“ Do you remember. Con, the story Mother used 
to tell us about the little old woman who wasn’t 
sure she was herself, and kept saying that if her 
little dog were only there he would know? I sup- 
pose you wouldn’t remember, though; you were so 
little.” 

“ Yes, I do,” insisted Connie, “ I remember 
that very story. At least, I think I do. I’ve 
read it so many times I can’t be quite sure.” She 
hated to give up any memory of her mother that 
anyone else had, but she was honest to the last de- 
gree. “ Wliat made you think of it, anyway? ” 

“ Oh, I don’t know,” Rose answered vaguely, at 
the same time telling herself that she did know, but 
that it would not be easy to explain to anyone else. 
“ I was always crazy about Mother’s stories — about 
everything she did.” Her tone was wistful. “ I 
shall never forget one least little thing about her.” 

Neither shall I; though, of course, you can re- 
member lots more,” answered Connie in all hu- 
mility. 

“ Of course.” Rose sighed unconsciously. “ I 
215 


THE SHELDON SIX 


was named for her, but you look like her, Connie, 
and you do seem like her lots of times.” Which 
was a great concession on Rose’s part, as she had 
never before been willing to admit that anyone in 
the family resembled her mother. “ Well, I’m 
off,” she said, and then still lingered, looking over 
the garden which held such promise of beauty, at 
the glossy hens, greedily picking up the last of their 
breakfast, at Connie, herself, serenely watching 
with that motherly expression her face so often 
wore. 

“ Wouldn’t you think it would hurt their — their 
noses to tap them so hard in the pan? ” demanded 
Connie, her face crinkling into a laugh. “ Ouch ! 
It hurts my nose even to think of it.” 

“ That’s the trouble with having too much im- 
agination. You and Anne ” 

“Where is Anne?” Connie interrupted. She 
had heard something like this before, and she could 
make a pretty good guess as to what the rest of it 
would be. 

“ Up-stairs — studying.” Rose’s tone expressed 
her opinion of anyone who could stay in and study 
on a morning like this. “ Can you beat it? ” 

“Well ” — began Connie, at once on the de- 
fensive — “ she thinks if she works this summer 
she may be able to go on with her class, and the 
doctor told her she might study, you know.” 

216 


LISSY INTRODUCES HERSELF 


“ I know it. Catch me asking him. Probably 
it’s lucky we’re not all alike. Well, bye-bye.” 
Rose strode off along a narrow path, erect, slender, 
strongly poised, with her golden hair glinting in the 
sunshine. 

Connie’s eyes followed her admiringly.' There 
were times when she yearned to look like Rose, and 
wished that she herself were not so plump. Per- 
haps if she did not eat quite so much — she gazed 
at her sister trying to get hold of a haunting sug- 
gestion. 

“ I know,” she said out loud a moment later, “ if 
she had a bow and arrow she’d look like Diana — I 
mean the way Diana seems to me. I shouldn’t dare 
tell her, though.” 

The sudden slam of a screen door made her look 
back at the house to see Roger Bradley coming out. 

‘‘ Hello, Roger,” she called, her eyes wide with 
surprise. ‘‘ How did you get here so early? I 
thought you had lessons in the morning.” 

“ Sh! Don’t mention it. That’s what Mr. Pear- 
son thinks, too. I — I slid out, grabbed my wheel, 
and — and here I am.” 

“ Do you mean he doesn’t know where you’ve 
gone? ” Connie was looking at him soberly and, 
though she did not realize it, there was disapproval 
in her clear gaze. 

“ Oh, he can guess all right.” Roger’s eyes were 
217 


THE SHELDON SIX 


searching the garden for the other members of the 
family. Connie’s large-eyed, serious gaze made 
him uncomfortable, and he fancied he should get on 
better with Rose. It occurred to him that this 
morning he should prefer her even to Anne, though 
ordinarily he and Anne were the best of chums. 

“ Where’s Rose? ” he asked abruptly. “ I guess 
I’ll find her, and perhaps I can help about some- 
thing.” 

“ Getting asparagus. Where do you suppose 
Anne is? ” Without waiting for an answer Connie 
hurried on. “ She’s up-stairs studying. She hopes 
if she works every day this summer that she can go 
on next September with her class — the one she had 
to leave.” 

“ Hope she can, I’m sure,” Roger responded 
lightly. “ She has my permission. Where did 
you say Rose is? ” 

“ Getting asparagus,” said Connie, just as she 
had said it before. “ Let me tell you what I heard 
Anne say the other day.” She hesitated a moment, 
not quite certain that Anne would want her to re- 
peat this; then, convinced that the situation de- 
manded it, went on hastily. “ Anne said she 
wished she could have a teacher like Mr. Pearson; 
she knew she could just spin along.” 

“ Oh, she did, did she? ” Roger looked a little 
blank at the idea of considering this a privilege. 

218 


LISSY INTRODUCES HERSELF 


“ I’ll tell you,” he went on, ‘‘ Anne may take my 
place and have the lessons, and I’ll come over here 
every day and help in the garden. How’ll that suit 
you?” His persuasive grin would have won al- 
most any cause, but Connie was firm. 

“ But Anne doesn’t help about the garden work,” 
she said quickly. “ You’ll have to darn stockings 
and make beds and dust and — and fit in any old 
place where there’s something no one else wants to 
do.” 

“ I’m not for it,” Roger declared. “ But, say, if 
Anne can get time to study what’s the matter with 
having my lessons over here every morning, and 
then she can have half of Mr. Pearson? ” 

Connie looked at him doubtfully. “Do you 
think he would like it? ” 

“ Sure. He’s the best ever. He’ll jump at the 
chance. Let’s go and tell Anne about it now.” 

“Not before you’ve asked Mr. Pearson.” Con- 
nie spoke decidedly, and for the moment she had the 
feeling that Roger was about Jim’s age, and she 
his older sister. “ You haven’t been here very 

long; you’d have time now ” she stopped and 

the color mounted in her cheeks. Being a very 
polite sort of person she couldn’t bear the idea of 
seeming to send anyone home. 

Roger grinned understandingly. “ I know what 
you want me to do,” he grumbled. “ You think I 
219 


THE SHELDON SIX 


ought to get on my wheel and go back and have 
lessons, and tell Mr. Pearson about Anne ” 

''Ask Mr. Pearson about Anne,” interrupted 
Connie, who was not to be put down. She hoped 
she had sense enough to know that when Roger and 
Archie got fiercer and fiercer they didn’t mean a 
word of it. “ I think that would be a beautiful 
plan. The morning is young, as Daddy sometimes 
says ” — she smiled at him in her enjoyment at 
quoting so aptly one of her father’s frequent re- 
marks — “ and you’ll still have time for lessons. 
Then you can come over this afternoon and tell 
Anne.” 

“ Ask Anne,” corrected Roger with a satisfied 
air. “ Connie, I know now why Ellis calls you the 
‘ Voice of Conscience.’ But you needn’t think I’m 
going to let a young thing like you tell me what I 
ought to do. I’ve come to call on the Sheldons, 
and it will take me the rest of the morning to round 
’em up and look at ’em.” Roger paused teasingly, 
and Connie had no answer ready for him; there was 
a hint of anxiety in her eyes which he enjoyed. 

“ What did you say Rose is doing? ” he went on 

slowly. “ I guess I’ll go and ” he stopped 

again, and Connie held her breath, “ and get on my 
wheel and go back to Camp Bradley as fast as I 
can,” he finished in a hurry. “ So long,” he was 
opening the screen door into the kitchen by this 
220 


LISSr INTRODUCES HERSELF 


time, but he shut it again and came down the steps 
with a leap. “ Don’t mention it to Anne till I 
get back, will you? ” he said in a whisper, and 
then vanished so quickly that Connie rubbed her 
eyes. 

“ Well, that’s that,” she said. “ Now I’ll look 
for eggs and then I’ll make my bed.” 

Later in the morning. Rose, straightening and 
stretching after weeding one of the strawberry 
beds, caught a glimpse of someone peering at her 
from behind a clump of bushes not far away. As 
she looked the head dodged out of sight. She con- 
cluded at once that Susan and Jim were playing 
some sort of a game and had put her in it. “ Prob- 
ably they’re pretending I’m an old witch,” she said 
to herself, “ and they’re going to make believe shoot 
me with silver bullets, or some such foolish stuff as 
that.” 

She dropped on her knees once more and did a 
part of another bed, and when she next got up to 
rest, the same thing happened. Only this time she 
saw distinctly that it was neither Susan nor Jim, 
but a girl about Connie’s height with straggling 
dark hair. “ Well, of all things,” she said to herself. 
“ I don’t like the idea of anyone coming here to 
watch me.” For a moment she meditated as to 
what she should do. If she tried dashing around 
the bushes the girl would see her coming and run 
221 


THE SHELDON SIX 


away, and Rose was curious to know who she was 
and why she was there. 

She dropped down on her knees again, this time 
facing the clump of bushes, and so placing herself 
that the intruder would have to come a little farther 
into the open in order to see well. Then she worked 
and waited, and from under her hat, cautiously 
peeped out once in a while. 

Presently she saw a soiled and tattered skirt — 
she couldn’t see the girl’s shoes because the thick 
grass concealed them — but there was something 
familiar about the skirt. She tipped her head 
slightly and her glance travelled upward. She saw 
thin hands clutching each other tightly; then the 
lower part of a torn and dingy blouse appeared, and 
she knew at once when and where she had seen it 
before. She did not dare openly to look any 
higher, but in her mind she could picture distinctly 
the tangled black hair and the haunting gaze of the 
girl whom she had seen at Mill Hollow. Dreadful 
place! She had tried to forget it. What was that 
girl’s name? Almost immediately she remembered 
that that nice Mrs. Rand had called her “ Lissy,” 
and had said that she couldn’t get hold of the girl 
inside of her. Rose recalled that because it had 
interested her. 

If only Anne were here — or Connie. They both 
got on better with strangers than she did. Her 
222 


LISSY INTRODUCES HERSELF 


own way would be to jump suddenly and capture 
the girl and that, she was sure, would not do. 

Rose kept on weeding and trying to think out 
the best way to manage the situation. She wished 
the girl would go away so that she could forget 
about her. She was dirty and she had disagreeable, 
impish ways. Rose felt that she should not know 
in the least what to do with her. But Connie had 
a way of getting on with almost everyone. 

She straightened in preparation for getting up to 
slip into the house and call Connie; then her head 
went down again and she smiled. “ If Neil should 
know about this he’d say again that I’m always 
shoving chances for good deeds on my family,” she 
said to herself, and reluctantly admitted that this 
repeated accusation was true up to now. 

“ But it shan’t be any longer,” she vowed with a 
fierceness that almost took her breath away. She 
wondered anxiously how she should go about the 
business of luring the girl from her hiding-place. 
Suddenly she remembered that Mrs. Rand had 
said Lissy had found a flower and had shown it to 
her. Rose looked around; not far away, flaunting 
its loveliness as if on purpose to help her, grew a 
spreading bush of early roses, deep pink, with buds 
crimson-tipped. 

She got on her feet slowly, with her back toward 
the girl, and walked over to the bush. It was cov- 
223 


THE SHELDON SIX 


ered with thorns and it seemed to her that she 
should never succeed in getting off the flower she 
had chosen. She would not give it up, though. 
It occurred to her that perhaps Lissy would be like 
this — very prickly, but worth working for. As 
she twisted the tough stem she heard behind her the 
sound of someone walking stealthily through the 
grass — or did she just imagine it? 

Suddenly a voice, hoarse in its eagerness, said, 
“ I help you, lady.” 

“ All right,” Rose answered coolly, and by an 
effort kept herself from turning. “ If you can get 
it off you may have it.”’ 

Lissy applied strong teeth to the stem and bit it 
through, regardless of thorns. “ I have heem; he 
is mos’ beautifool,” she cried triumphantly. 

“ Come over here and we’ll sit down and look at 
it,” proposed Rose, not knowing anything better 
to do. Dropping down on the grass she drew from 
her pocket two cookies. “ Have one,” she offered, 
and put it into the thin hand without waiting for 
a reply. 

The girl ate it slowly, her eyes roving from the 
flower to Rose. “You are beautiful like this,” she 
said at last, holding up the flower, and embarrassing 
Rose by the admiration in her gaze. “ I saw you 
and I have try — have try much days to find you.” 
She was speaking in a slow, soft way which was, 
224 


LISSY INTRODUCES HERSELF 


nevertheless, full of purpose, and now her eyes 
never left Rose’s face. “ I will stay with you. I 
love you. I will do what — ^what you tell to me. 
You will be my mothair.” It was a long speech 
for her, and at the end she gave a gasp of relief. 
Then her face broke into a smile which chased the 
sadness from her dark eyes. 

Rose felt like running away, but instead she 
made a valiant attempt to smile in return. A little 
while ago she had been trying to win this girl, but 
now the tables were turned, and it was she who was 
being adopted as — as a mother. Catch her telling 
the family that ! She should never hear the last of it. 

It suddenly occurred to her that if she could per- 
suade Lissy to be clean and decent and — and not a 
trouble-maker, it would be just as good, perhaps 
even better than helping Neil with his club. The 
boys could do that and — she came out of her reverie 
to find an exceedingly dirty hand smoothing her 
shoe. 

“ If I’m going to be your m-mother,” she said, 
choking a little over the word, “ you’ve got to be 
washed. Come on.” 

In the kitchen Effie looked doubtful and disap- 
proving, and Lissy, sensing an unfriendly atmos- 
phere, started to make a face at her, but Rose’s 
frown and shake of the head stopped her just in 
time. 


225 


THE SHELDON SIX 


“ Oh, Effie ! ” Rose pulled Effie over by the win- 
dow and talked in a low tone. “ It’s what they’re 
all trying to do — ^help those people over in Mill 
Hollow, I mean. Such an awful place — and no 
one can get along with this girl, and she’s been 
hunting for me.” 

EfSe’s set face softened, and she began to look 
interested. 

“ Won’t you please help me out on this? ” Rose 
hurried on. “ It’s only ten o’clock — couldn’t we 
give her a bath? I — I’ll do it if you’ll only advise 
me.” Rose’s voice was heroic, but her involuntary 
shudder did not escape Effie’s eyes. 

“ There’s some of Connie’s clothes she’s grown 
too stout for. I mended ’em up thinkin’ some child 
might need ’em,” Effie said slowly. “And I’ll give 
her a bath — you needn’t touch her till she’s 
clean.” 

“ Effie, you’re a darling duck! I hated to do it, 
but I didn’t want to be a quitter. I wonder how 
she’ll like it.” 

Fifteen minutes later that question was answered. 
Rose, standing outside the bath-room door, because 
Effie thought she could do better if she were alone 
with the girl, heard protesting shrieks, and words 
that were in a strange tongue and sounded angry. 
Then Effie’s voice trying to be calm and soothing — 
a splash in the tub — another shriek — and, after an 
226 


LISSY INTRODUCES HERSELF 


interval, more splashing and a droning continuous 
murmur which seemed to indicate resignation. 

After waiting for a while Rose tiptoed into her 
father’s room to sit down and found him taking a 
half hour’s rest from garden work. 

“ What’s going on, Posy? ” he asked with some 
curiosity. “ I fancied I heard sounds of woe.” 

“ You did. It’s a girl from Mill Hollow. 
You’ve heard Miss Dean talk about that place. 
Effie’s washing her, and I guess she was afraid to 
get into the tub. You don’t mind, do you? ” 

“ Not if EfRe’s in charge. How did you get hold 
of the girl? ” 

“ I didn’t — she got hold of me.” Rose smiled 
over the memory of it. “ Daddy, she says I’ve got 
to be her mother. Keep it mum, won’t you; 
I wouldn’t have the others hear it for any- 
thing.” 

“ I’ll never tell. And you must be a good 
mother. It will never do to destroy such confi- 
dence as that.” Father got up from his chair and 
stood smiling down at Rose, who realized for the 
first time what a change even these few weeks of 
outdoor life had made in him. 

“ Daddy, you look almost as young as Ellis this 
morning,” she said happily. “ It has done you 
good, hasn’t it, coming to Brookfield? ” 

“ Heaps of good,” answered her father briefly. 

227 


THE SHELDON SJX 

“ You don’t mind it yourself so much as you did, 
I’m thinking.” 

Rose felt guilty; he had guessed her thoughts, 
after all. “ I believe I’m beginning to like it,” she 
said slowly, and then, because her father’s eyes al- 
ways seemed to demand perfect honesty from her, 
“ at least, I don’t dislike it as much as I did. As 
long as I keep busy I don’t have time to think about 
Melford.” 

‘‘ Well, as Ellis would say, ‘ go to it.’ Only, 
Posy, if you begin to help this little girl, don’t get 
tired of it and drop her all of a sudden. That, for 
some natures, would be worse than not being helped 
at all.” 

‘‘ I probably shall get tired of it,” Rose admitted 
in a burst of candor, “ but I’ll try to stick to my 
job just the same. Oh, I believe they’re coming 
out. Good-bye, Daddy. I must let her see that I 
haven’t gone back on her already.” 

She darted into the hall, and fairly held her 
breath as the bath-room door opened and Lissy 
appeared. The dress, too tight for Connie, hung 
loosely on the slender figure of this girl, but it was 
clean and whole, and its wearer evidently felt proud 
of it. Her wet hair was concealed by a towel, and 
she carried her head erect. There was a look of 
anxiety in her eyes until she saw Rose and then she 
smiled brilliantly. 


228 


TLISSY INTRODUCES HERSELF 


‘‘ You — ^you get in this beeg — this beeg water, 
too?” she questioned at once. “I have been 
frighted of heem, but now I — I love heem. You 
love heem, too? ” she ended eagerly. 

Rose’s nod and smile assured her that she was 
doing the proper thing in loving the “ beeg water.” 

“ And here,” Lissy darted back to the tub and 
seized the soap, “ I love heem also.” She cuddled 
it in both hands and held it against her cheek; she 
sniffed it rapturously. “ You give heem to me, 
pie-ease, lady. I make myself clean ” — her sad 
eyes became all at once humorous — “ if I ever be 
dirty again after this — this so good wash.” Her 
sweeping gesture took in the whole room and Effie 
as its presiding genius. 

“ All right, you may have the soap. We’ll put 
a paper ’round it and you may take it home. Now 
come out into the garden and dry your hair.” 

“ Let’s give her some bread and butter and a 
glass of milk,” whispered Effie. “ I should think 
she’d be worn out; the scrubbing I give her was 
something fierce.” 

‘‘ Oh, of course. I ought to have thought of 
that. She looks dreadfully thin.” 

‘‘She would; she’s clean now,” remarked Effie 
with one of her rare smiles, and then they all went 
down-stairs. 


229 


CHAPTER XIII 


BIG SISTERS AND BROTHERS 

After the bread and milk, Connie helped Rose 
comb out the mass of hair which hung over the girl’s 
shoulders, and Lissy bore it like a hero though it 
was unbelievably tangled. Once she faced Rose 
with the question, “ You do this, too? Your hair 
he — he tie heemself up like this? ” 

“ Sometimes,” answered Rose. “ It’s almost 
done now,” and again the child straightened her- 
self and bore the rest of it without a murmur. 

When it was finished it fell in a soft black cloud 
about her face, and Rose tied it back with one of her 
own ribbons. Then they took her to a mirror, and 
let her look at herself as long as she pleased. 

Back in the garden again Lissy’s face wore an 
expression of awe mingled with distress. Rose, 
who had thought she would be perfectly happy, was 
disappointed and tried in vain to think what could 
be the matter; hut it was Miss Dean, who had come 
over to talk with Mr. Sheldon and Ellis, who solved 
the mystery. 


230 


BIG SISTERS AND BROTHERS 


As the three girls approached she turned, and her 
eyes opened wide at sight of Lissy. “ Well, of all 
things 1 You’re fine and dandy, aren’t you, Lissy? 
Fine — and — dandy ! ” 

“ Fine — and — dandy,” repeated the girl as if this 
were a sort of game with Miss Eunice, and then, to 
the surprise of everyone she burst into a passion of 
tears. For a few minutes no one could comfort 
her, but when she was able to speak she talked 
directly to Miss Eunice. 

“ The woman will — will take eet away from me,” 
she sobbed. “ All — all — this beautiful robe — these 

shoes and stockings — this lovely theeng ” she 

took carefully from her pocket a pink-bordered 
handkerchief which Anne had contributed. 

“ She means the woman who took her after her 
mother died,” Miss Dean explained rapidly, walk- 
ing away a few steps and speaking so that the child 
could not hear. “ Her mother was a French 
woman, who came to this country and somehow, 
poor soul, drifted to Mill Hollow. It hasn’t been 
good for Lissy to live with this woman, but no one 
else wanted her. Perhaps Mrs. Rand could take 
her now; she’s tried to be friendly to the child.” 

“ ‘ Lissy ’ ! It seems to me that’s a queer name for 
a French child,” Anne observed. 

“ The children call her that. Her name’s FMi- 
cie, or something like it,” explained Miss Eunice, 

231 


THE SHELDON SIX 

pronouncing the foreign name with some uncer- 
tainty. 

“ I suppose that is the French form of our ‘ Feli- 
cia/ and Felicia means happiness/’ said Mr. Shel- 
don. 

“ Gee-whillikins ! ” muttered Ellis with such in- 
tensity that Rose felt grateful to him. “ It’ll take 
the poor kid some time to catch up with her name. 
Some of us ought to do something.” 

“ I judge from what they tell me that her mother 
was superior to most of those women over there and 
tried to help the others. We haven’t done right by 
her child.” Miss Dean shook her head in a worried 
way over her own shortcomings, and began im- 
mediately to reform by going back to Lissy and 
drying her eyes with a large handkerchief. “ See 
here, Lissy,” she said gently, “ I’ll go home with 
you this afternoon. You shall keep your clothes or 
I’ll know the reason why. 

“ I’m going to take Ellen and Neil over there in 
my car, and I’ll talk to the woman,” she went on, 
turning to Rose. “ There’ll be room in the car for 
Lissy, too.” 

The girl besought Rose with a look. “ If you 
come I feel all right,” she said with so softened an 
air that it was hard to think her the same girl whom 
Rose had first seen at Mill Hollow. 

“ Archie’s coming this afternoon with his car; 
232 


BIG SISTERS AND BROTHERS 

perhaps he’d take some of us over there,” suggested 
Connie. To her this was an interesting adventure, 
and she wanted it to go on and on. 

This being settled for the present, Rose went 
back to her weeding, and speedily taught Lissy the 
difference between what should and what should 
not grow in a strawberry bed. The girl was so 
quick to understand, so imitative, that Rose caught 
herself trying to do and say everything in the best 
way. It was rather a joke at first to have some- 
one following her example so closely, but after 
a while it troubled her, and she yearned to get 
away, or, at least, to evade the persistent anxious 
gaze of the dark eyes. 

After dinner it seemed to her that someone in the 
family might take the girl off her hands for a while; 
but Connie, the one most likely to do it, was myste- 
riously interested in Roger’s arrival, and kept near 
Anne, as if she were afraid she should miss some- 
thing. Finally Lissy consented to go with Susan 
and Jim and Rex to pick buttercups, and Rose 
drew a deep breath of relief and went in search of 
her father. For a wonder he was alone, taking an 
after-dinner rest on the east piazza, and she poured 
out her troubles at once. 

“Daddy, I’m worried to pieces; I’m a quitter 
already — in my mind,” she confessed. “ She 
watches me every minute and she tries to do just 

233 


THE SHELDON SIX 

what I do, and — oh, I suppose I sound like a goose, 
but ” 

Her father laughed and pulled her down on the 
arm of his chair. “ You're not a goose,” he com- 
forted. No normal person would enjoy that sort 
of thing. But it won’t last. Posy; she’s just as new 
to the job as you are, and she’ll get used to it in a 
little while.” 

“ Perhaps,” Rose doubted. “ But how about 
me? Do you suppose I shall ever get used to it? ” 
And then, before her father could answer, in a sud- 
den burst of confidence, she added, “ Daddy, I’m 
scared. I’m getting so that I can’t go off and have 
a good time and forget about everybody and every- 
thing. It’s a kind of worrisome feeling; I don’t 
know just what’s happening to me.” 

Mr. Sheldon laughed again, and Rose put her 
hand over his mouth. “ Sh!” she said hurriedly. 
“If you laugh, the others will come to see what the 
joke is, and I want you all to myself” — she 
paused, and a queer expression stole into her face — 
“ why, that last sounded quite natural, didn’t it, 
Daddy? I guess I’m not so very different, after 
all.” 

“ What do you think is causing this change of 
heart. Posy? ” Her father was regarding her 
seriously, but there was a twinkle in his eye which 
made Rose smile responsively. 

234 


BIG SISTERS AND BROTHERS 


“ You’re laughing at me, but I don’t mind. I’ve 
been trying to find out myself why I feel different 
and I think it’s Neil’s fault. His and Ellen’s, I 
mean. They’re not just like the other girls and 
boys I know. Still they’re not goody-goody, 
either” — she was puckering her forehead in the 
effort to think it out correctly — ‘‘ but there’s some- 
thing about them that makes me feel — makes me 
feel as if I wanted — oh, I can’t explain it. Daddy, 
but you know what I mean ; you always do.” 

“ It’s hard to put the idea into words, isn’t it, 
Posy? I suspect they make you feel as if there 
was something else worth doing besides just having 
a good time.” 

“ I suppose that’s it. Thoughts and feelings 
aren’t easy to explain, though. I never used to be 
bothered with ’em — this kind, I mean.” She sighed 
and snuggled closer to her father. ‘‘ Well,” she 
went on after a moment, “ I don’t know' just why, 
but telling you about it has helped. I’m going to 
try to stand it to be watched every second and ” 

“ Put yourself in the girl’s place. Posy. Sup- 
pose you were in a dark, shut-in place and suddenly 
a star appeared to show you the way out. The 
cases are not exactly alike, but I fancy you seem a 
sort of guiding star to her.” 

“ Me! A guiding star! ” Rose looked as if she 
thought this the most absurd idea possible. “ If I 

235 


THE SHELDON SIX 


should try being one I should always be running 
into the other stars or getting knocked by a comet.” 

“Rose!” said her father so soberly that she 
blinked and stood at attention. “ Rose, if you’re 
not careful you’ll develop an imagination, and that, 
I believe, is one of your chief causes of complaint 
against Anne and Connie.” 

“ Goodness, Father! You actually scared me. 
But I’m afraid you don’t know your own child if 
you think of her as a star.” 

“ Well, if I don’t know her, at least I have con- 
fidence in her,” responded Mr. Sheldon with grati- 
fying promptness. “ Just be yourself. Posy, and 
don’t let the little girl worry you. We’ll all 

try ” he stopped, because Anne’s voice, calling 

“ Father! ” was coming nearer and nearer. “ Yes, 
Nan. What is it? ” he answered. 

It was not only Anne who came running around 
the corner of the house, but with her Archie and 
Roger and Mr. Pearson, and lastly Connie, who 
was as excited as Anne. 

“Oh, Daddy, what do you think?” Anne 
began. “ Roger and Mr. Pearson are coming over 
here eveiy morning for lessons, and Mr. Pearson is 
going to help me about mine. Isn’t that the nicest 
thing you ever heard, and wasn’t it wonderful of 
Roger to think of it and plan it? ” Anne’s eyes 
were shining and her cheeks were faintly pink. 

236 


BIG SISTERS AND BROTHERS 


“ I say you mustn’t give me all the credit,” began 
Roger, and then jumped because Connie’s fingers 
had closed fiercely on a small piece of his arm. 
“ Well, of course,” he went on in an injured tone^^ 
“ of course it wouldn’t have done any good for 
me to plan it if Mr. Pearson hadn’t been will- 
ing.” 

“ I should say not.” Anne was beaming on Mr. 
Pearson now, and she did not hear Connie whisper 
to Roger, “Don’t you dare to let her know; she 
wouldn’t like it so well.” 

“ I know,” Anne began again, “ that you’ll have 
the most bother, Mr. Pearson. But I’ll work so 
hard you’ll like to teach me.” 

“ I already like it,” Mr. Pearson answered with 
his pleasant smile. “ I love to teach when my 
pupils want to learn.” 

In spite of the fact that his look did not even 
graze Roger, that young gentleman squirmed. “ I 
didn’t tell you the only condition he made when I 
asked him, Anne,” he remarked with a chuckle. 
“ He said if I wasn’t on hand for my lessons you’d 
lose yours. You see I’m up against it.” 

“ Oh, I see,” Anne said softly, remembering 
what Archie had said about Roger’s lessons, and 
then again, “ I see.” 

“ Anne, you’re evidently not the only grateful 
one,” put in Archie with a grin. “ I’ve noticed a 

237 


THE SHELDON SIX 

new courage in Mr. Pearson’s face since the plan 
was made.” 

Anne laughed and understood. “ Roger Brad- 
ley, if you make me miss a lesson ” — ^she began, 
and then — “ anyway, I’m perfectly delighted, and 
you were a dear to think of it.” 

Roger looked uncomfortable, and edged around 
to where he could stare grimly at Connie, who was 
placidly undisturbed by his disapproval. In her 
mind she was vowing that as soon as she got Roger 
alone she would tell him that Anne must never 
know who had put the idea into his head. She 
liked him, though, for hating to take the credit for 
it. 

‘‘ Archie, will you take us over to Mill Hollow 
this afternoon? ” asked Rose, feeling that enough 
time had been spent on the subject of lessons. “ Is 
your car stretchable? ” 

“ Sure. I’ll take all that want to go. Pas- 
sengers allowed to sit on the floor without extra 
charge.” 

“ All right, that settles it. Miss Dean is going 
by about three o’clock. All who want to go be 
ready then. And now. Nan, will you please come 
in and see if there is anything more that I may have 
for Lissy? ” 

“ This was one of my favorite dresses,” Connie 
said somewhat later, smoothing a pink gingham 
238 


BIG SISTERS AND BROTHERS 

with loving fingers. “ I’m honestly sorry it’s too 
small.” 

“ Oh, pooh, I wouldn’t give it away if I liked 
it,” advised Susan, who had hunted up a hair-ribbon 
she did not care for to give to the girl from Mill 
Hollow. “ You could have a piece put in. Catch 
me giving away my favoritest things.” 

“ Well ” — Connie looked as if she were con- 
sidering a serious problem — “ I like to give away a 
thing I like, because if I like it then I think someone 
else may like it, too.” 

“ Help, help! ” protested Jim. ‘‘ You had four 
likes in that sentence, Connie.” 

“ That proves it,” answered Connie serenely. 
“ What are you going to give her, Jimsey? ” 

“ Something I like. When I was drawing out 
on the porch a while ago she got down beside me 

and watched me. Then, very slyly ” Jim was 

enjoying Connie’s rapt attention and he paused a 
moment to prolong the interest. 

“ Yes,” urged his sister — “ ‘ very slyly ’ — go on; 
what happened? ” 

“ She took one of my pencils and stuck it in her 
pocket. She didn’t think I saw her.” 

“ And what did you do? ” 

Jim frowned. He was cutting out and pasting 
a paper house, and it did not go to suit him. 
“ Well, I didn’t want her to take it that way,” he 

239 


THE SHELDON SIX 

said after a vexatious delay, “ ’cause it looked like — 
you know what it looked like. So I just said, ‘ Give 
me that one and I’ll let you have a better one ’ ; and 
then the only really better one was my very best 
one. But she got it all the same.” 

“ Good for 3^ou, Jimsey,” Connie said warmly. 

“Huh!” muttered Susan, “ you’U never get it 
back again.” 

“ Don’t expect to; didn’t I give it to her? I’ve 
just thought of another thing, too. I’m going to 
slide into that box you’re fixing for her one of the 
tablets Daddy gave me so she’ll have something to 
draw (m.” 

“Huh!” said Susan again, trj-ing to make it 
soimd as if she scorned all such doings as this. 
Five minutes afterwards, however, she slipped 
away, but came back some^vhat later to add to the 
gifts intended for Lissy a small work-bag contain- 
ing the articles necessary for sewing. 

Xo one else was in the room at this moment so 
Susan talked to herself as she often did. “ I like 
this little bag,” she said, holding it up for a final 
inspection and putting her hand inside. She was 
not quite sure that she should be permitted to give 
this bag away, and she decided to tuck it under 
Connie’s dress where it might not be seen. 

“ I love this thimble, and probably it won’t make 
that other girl’s finger ache the way it does mine,” 
240 


BIG SISTERS AND BROTHERS 


she went on in a satisfied tone. “ And, of course, 
I like these shiny, sharp needles, and this lovely 
tliread, and these little buttons and pins, but I’ll 
give ’em all to her.” Then her groping fingers 
touched the scissors and she drew them from the 
bag. 

“ Oh, I don’t b’lieve she’d like these,” she said 
hastily. “ She might cut herself with these, and 
I — I know how to use ’em.” She pulled the draw- 
strings of the bag as if fearful that it might swallow 
the cherished scissors. Then she stood perfectly 
silent for a moment. At last she opened the bag 
with evident reluctance, and over its gaping mouth 
swung the scissors on her small finger. “ I like 

you, little sidders,” she murmured, “ I ” her 

finger dipped suddenly to let the scissors slide off. 
“ Go in there,” she said sternly, and pulled up 
the strings with a jerk. Then she poked the bag 
under Connie’s dress as she had planned, and 
wholly at peace with the world went to find her 
family. 

That afternoon Rose had a chance to see with 
what apparent ease ]\Iiss Dean managed people. 
As soon as her automobile appeared in Slill Hollow 
that gloomy settlement took on the air of trying to 
put its best foot foremost. Frowsy heads appeared 
at the vdndows and disappeared as quickly; chil- 
dren were called in and given a polish which left 
241 


THE SHELDON SIX 

them red and gasping; one woman hurried to show 
Miss Eunice a garment which she had put together 
with great neatness; another came with some little 
cakes made according to a recipe she had learned 
in her native country. 

One and all they stared and wondered at the 
transformed Lissy, who clung tightly to Rose’s 
hand, looking both proud and apprehensive. She 
was sure that no one ever had on better clothes than 
she was wearing at the present moment, but she 
could not help fearing that when her new friends 
left her all other joys would depart also. Never- 
theless she pinned her faith to Miss Eunice and 
Rose. 

Soon after their arrival Miss Dean mentioned 
that Mr. Rand needed help in some work he was 
doing, and Ellis, Archie and Roger volunteered at 
once, leaving Neal and Mr. Pearson in the auto- 
mobile. Ellen collected her sewing-class and went 
off to one side to criticize and encourage; Connie 
made love to an attractive baby who was fairly 
clean. Anne wanted to get acquainted with some- 
one, but, with a sudden return of her old shyness, 
felt that she did not know how to begin. 

“ Look at Neil,” said Rose suddenly, and Anne 
turned to find that already the running-board of the 
car was crowded with small boys. “ He thinks he 
doesn’t do anything entertaining,” Rose went on, 
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BIG SISTERS AND BROTHERS 

“ but there’s something about him that draws ’em 
like flies ’round a molasses barrel.” 

“ What’s he doing? ” murmured Anne, looking 
with curiosity at the intent group. Oh, I know. 
He’s teaching them to tie some of the different 
kinds of knots.” 

Rose gazed and tried to recall a memory which 
the scene suggested. In her absorption she almost 
forgot the hand clinging to her own. “ I’ve got 
it,” she said at last. “ Do you remember. Nan, 
what Father read to us last winter about the ‘ Big 
Brother Club ’? That’s what Neil makes me think 
of.” 

“ So he does,” agreed Miss Eunice, who had come 
up unperceived in time to hear the last remark. 
“ I read about the ‘ Big Brothers,’ too.” 

The clasp on Rose’s hand tightened, and Lissy 
spoke for the first time since they had reached Mill 
Hollow. Indicating Rose with an adoring glance 

she said, “ She is the beeg brother ” she shook 

her head impatiently and began over again, She 
is the beeg sister of me, is eet not? ” 

“ ‘ Out of the mouth of babes,’ ” quoted Miss 
Eunice softly, and stared at Anne and Rose with 
the eyes of one who visions wonderful possibilities. 
“ She’s hit it,” she said at last; “ that’s what we’ll 
have here if all you youngsters help me out — 
Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Anne, you talk it 

243 


THE SHELDON SIX 


over with the others as fast as you can get hold of 
them, while Rose and I decide what’s to be done 
with a certain young person.” 

Under Miss Dean’s guidance plans shaped them- 
selves magically. The worn-faced woman with 
many children who had tried to get the most work 
she could out of Lissy, agreed without much trouble 
to let Miss Dean make axhange in the child’s home, 
saying, with a shrug, that someone else might have 
the bother of her. Mrs. Rand had a small room 
which she was willing to let Lissy have, so that part 
of it was quickly settled. 

“ And Miss Rose is to be her Big Sister — a sort 
of guardian, you know, who’ll be ready to help her 
out of her difficulties,” said Miss Eunice cheerfully. 
‘‘ You agree to that, don’t you, Rose? ” 

“ Ye-es.” It was a promise, and Rose meant it 
that way, but all the time a part of her mind was 
tugging against it. This had all happened in spite 
of her, she was thinking. The girl had adopted 
her, and Miss Eunice had managed them both, and 
— well, anyway, she had promised; she couldn’t 
back out now. Probably this would show Neil that 
she had been right in saying that she hadn’t patience 
enough to teach anyone anything. 

The others took up the idea with enthusiasm. 
Connie separated herself from the enticing baby 
with regret, and chose to be big sister to a shy, 
244 


BIG SISTERS AND BROTHERS 

sickly little girl who wouldn’t be picked out by any- 
one else she was sure. 

“ I wish I could give her some of my flesh,” she 
said confidentially to Ellen Ramsay. ‘‘ I’ve got so 
much more than I need; just before I came to 
Brookfield a girl in school called me ‘ Fatty,’ and 
I hated it.” 

“ She was horrid,” comforted Ellen. “ I 
shouldn’t want you to be much thinner, Connie.” 
Ellen had time to help the others choose, because 
she felt that her part was already decided for her, 
and that she must be big sister to all the girls in her 
sewing-class. 

Going home, with Miss Dean’s car leading so 
that she might show them a road they had not tried 
before, they talked over the choices they had 
made. 

“ I bet my boy is going to amount to a lot more 
than your girl will,” Archie said teasingly to Rose. 
“ I think he’s a genius, or something of that kind. 
Your girl’s a regular spitfire.” 

“ Your boy looks as if he didn’t have spirit 
enough to say ‘ scat,’ ” she retorted. “ I prefer 
my own job, thank you.” 

“ I believe Miss Dean magicked us into doing 
all this,” Roger said with a worried air. He had 
chosen a dreamy-faced boy whom he had found off 
by himself tooting on a tin whistle. “ Now I come 
245 


THE SHELDON SIX 


to think it over I don’t believe I want to be a big 
brother. I’ve got troubles of my own.” 

“ Oh, don’t back out,” implored Anne, who had 
secret doubts of her own ability in this line. She 
wanted to feel that this was a cast-iron agreement, 
and failure to keep it an impossibility. 

“ He won’t be a quitter,” remarked Archie 
placidly. “ If he tries it I’ll ‘ big brother ’ him,” 

“ I picked out a boy that looks strong,” said 
Ellis. “I thought perhaps I could teach him to do 
a few little things about the garden.” 

“ Oh, Ellis! I call that looking out for number 
one,” protested Rose. “ Perhaps he’ll have a talent 
for something else.” 

“Well, let him show it and I’ll cultivate it. 
Until I find out what it is I’m not bound to recog- 
nize it. And talent or no talent I’m firmly con- 
vinced that everyone should know how to garden.” 

“ Stick to it, old boy,” encouraged Archie. 
“ Those are noble thoughts. Oh, I say, look at 
that brook over there. I’ll bet you’ll find trout in 
it.” 

After this the conversation concerned itself with 
trout-streams, and fishes of enormous size; with 
hikes and camping. Rose, usually as keen about 
these subjects as the boys, felt dreamily disinclined 
to talk, and leaned back in the car, sometimes not 
even hearing what the others were saying. 

246 


BIG SISTERS AND BROTHERS 


As it had before, the green countryside looked 
doubly beautiful to her after seeing Mill Hollow, 
and for a while she tried to think of nothing but the 
sky and hills and the perfumed breath of the breeze 
that cooled her cheek. Then it occurred to her that 
it wasn’t playing the game to forget Mill Hollow 
now; she must keep it and Lissy in her thoughts. 
A few minutes later she spoke to Anne under cover 
of an animated discussion. 

‘‘Oh, Nan,” she said softly, ‘‘you know that 
Mrs. Wilber who drops in so often to see you. 
She’s got a girl about Lissy’s size, and I believe 
I’ll ask her if she has any clothes to spare.” 

A smile danced into Anne’s eyes, but was sternly 
repressed as her sister hurried on. 

“ Oh, I know I’ve slid out of the way every time 
she came in, but I’ll go and see her properly if you 
think it will help.” 

“ I’m sure it will,” Anne said heartily. “ That’s 
a good scheme, because Lissy does look rather lost 
in Connie’s clothes.” 

Rose settled back again saying to herself that 
Nan was a good old scout. She never made fun 
of you when you had an idea like this. Rose felt a 
little like laughing at herself. Pretty soon, per- 
haps, she should be doing all the things she had 
thought she should never do. Why, here she was 
this very minute planning to call on a neighbor; and 
247 


THE SHELDON SIX 

she had promised to look after a girl. Already she 
was liking Brookfield much better than she had 
dreamed she could; and she had learned to find 
Miss Eunice both interesting and likable. 

“ Horrid, superior little snob, wasn’t I, the day 
I got here? ” she asked herself in scorn, remember- 
ing how she wished the children wouldn’t be so 
friendly with their entertaining fellow-traveller. 
She recalled that her father had said, “ If you’re 
worth as much as I think you are you’ll find out 
some day how much Miss Dean means to her neigh- 
bors ; ” and she, like a simpleton, had thought Miss 
Eunice had been telling of her own good deeds. 
Now that would be the last thing she should 
imagine. 

“ If you are worth as much as I think you 
are ” she hadn’t thought of that part of it par- 

ticularly when Daddy said it, but now it seemed to 
her to mean that he was counting on her, too, and 
that he believed there was something in her big 
enough to appreciate Miss Dean. It was curious 
about likes and dislikes. It had never occurred to 
her before that if she did not like a person it might 
be from some lack on her own part. It was queer 
how she was thinking things out nowadays; queer 
and a little bothersome, she decided with a sigh, and 
she wondered what would happen next to make her 
change her previous ideas. 

248 


BIG SISTERS AND BROTHERS 

She was still pondering over this when the auto- 
mobile swept through what Anne called the main 
avenue of Brookfield, and approached the Sheldon 
house. Then, in a flash, she knew exactly what her 
next problem was to be. 

Coming down the path to meet them, with Mr. 
Sheldon behind her, and Susan and Jim near at 
hand, was a lady in a blue dress whose wavy hair 
gleamed bronze in the sunlight. At sight of her, 
Anne uttered a cry of joy, but Rose sat silent and 
wished she did not have to look. 

The moment Miss Dean’s car stopped, Ellen 
Ramsay was out of it and hugging the newcomer 
with all her might. “ Oh, Cousin Jean, why didn’t 
you let us know you would be here to-day? ” she 
questioned. ‘‘ We shouldn’t have stirred from the 
house if we had dreamed you were coming.” 

“ I didn’t know it myself until this morning,” 
answered Miss Graham. “ I had a chance to 
motor here with some friends. Hegan told me you 
had gone with Miss Eunice, so after I had changed 
my dress I thought I would walk over here and see 
this friend of mine.” She turned to put out both 
hands to Anne, who came up to her flushed and 
smiling. 

“ Hegan didn’t say that this was to be a com- 
bination party so I fancied I might find you at 
home,” Jean Graham went on. “Anne, how well 
249 


THE SHELDON SIX 

you look, and happy, too, I shall have to ask you 
over again if you are sure you are the same girl I 
met on that porch in Melford? ” 

“ No,” laughed Anne, shaking her head, “ I’m 
quite sure I’m not the same. I certainly don’t feel 
like her.” Her voice was joyful, and there was a 
glad light in her eyes. This was her Miss Graham 
who had put out a friendly hand to help when she 
had thought her own troubles were overwhelming. 

“ I say. Cousin J ean, aren’t you going to speak 
to me? ” Neil was stretching a welcoming hand 
from the car, the wistful eagerness of his expres- 
sion showing plainly how he would like to spring 
out and greet her. 

Rose, catching a glimpse of his face, felt a twinge 
of conscience. She had stepped out of the car 
slowly, letting the others get ahead of her, and now 
she hesitated, unconsciously frowning a little, and, 
for the moment, feeling curiously apart from her 
family. She was not a bit glad to see Miss Gra- 
ham, and yet she could not explain even to herself 
why she did not like her. 

Suddenly that interfering inner self of hers sup- 
plied an explanation. “ It’s because you’re con- 
trary, and you never do like anyone the others are 
crazy about,” it said with what Rose considered 
disagreeable candor. 

“ I’m not either,” she contradicted in her mind, 
250 


BIG SISTERS AND BROTHERS 


and then, with her compelling honesty, added, 
“ Perhaps I have been snippy about Miss Graham, 
but Anne made me tired. Oh, dear, what differ- 
ence does it make anyway? I suppose I can say 
I’m glad to see her.” 

As she walked slowly toward the welcoming 
group she saw that Neil’s eyes were fixed upon her. 
In his glance were a question and a challenge, and 
Rose seemed to understand both. It was almost 
as if he were saying aloud, “Are you going to let 
anyone else know you don’t like my cousin? Brace 
up and put the best face on it.” 

Involuntarily, Rose straightened her shoulders 
and took a deep breath. She would show Neil 
Ramsay. Then she pushed between Connie and 
Ellen, who were both talking at the same moment, 
and putting out her hand said with a smile, “ Do 
you remember me, Miss Graham? I’m Rose.” 


251 


CHAPTER XIV; 


CHOCOLATES TO DOUGHNUTS 

“ Whereas Rose? ” Connie stepped out on the 
porch where Anne was pacing up and down in the 
morning sunshine, book in hand, gabbling as she 
walked. “ Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to in- 
terrupt you when you were studying.” 

“ I believe I know it now,” Anne responded joy- 
ously. “ Roger and I have the same Latin and 
History, you know, and when he really works I 
have to scramble to keep up with him. He and 
Mr. Pearson will be here soon. What was it you 
asked me? ” 

“ If you know where Rose is. I thought I saw 
Lissy coming. I guess I was mistaken, but she’ll 
be here before long. Perhaps Rose has skipped out 
early on purpose.” 

“ Lissy hasn’t missed a day in the two weeks 
since she adopted Rose, has she? Poor old Posy is 
having a harder time than we are, Connie. Our 
‘ little sisters ’ only come when we urge them.” 

“ I know it. Mine is scared pink of everyone 
252 


CHOCOLATES TO DOUGHNUTS 


here, and won’t open her mouth except for some- 
thing to eat, and yours isn’t much better. But 
Lissy seems different from the rest of them; she has 
a kind of — a kind of a thirsty mind.” 

“ I think she aiDpeals to Rose, because so often 
she begs to go into the ‘ beeg water,’ ” Anne said 
dreamily. She was sitting on the railing now, gaz- 
ing across a far-reaching meadow opposite the 
house; it was a carpet of soft green which extended 
to the darker green of the pines in the distance. 
She brought herself back with an effort, and took 
up the subject just where she had left it. ‘‘ Rose 
loves baths, you know.” 

“ She’s awfully quick to learn; Lissy, I mean. 
She takes her bath all by herself now, and even 
Effie says she doesn’t make a bit of clutter in the 
bath-room. Only ” — Connie came as near as pos- 
sible to Anne and spoke low — “ do you notice that 
there’s never a bit of soap left after she gets 
through? I didn’t think anything about it at first, 
but now I know that it vanishes every time. Do 
you ” — her voice became deeply mysterious — ‘‘ do 
you s’pose she eats it? ” 

“ No, I don’t,” laughed Anne. “ Probably she 
likes the soapsuds and lets the soap stay in the water 
too long. Only this morning Effie was telling me 
how fast our last lot of soap is going, and this helps 
to account for it. I must speak to Rose about it.” 

253 


THE SHELDON SIX 


“ Speak away,” put in Rose herself, coming out 
of the house just in time to hear the last words. 
“ What have I been doing now? ” 

'‘Anyone would think you were always being 
scolded,” remarked Connie, gazing at her sister 
with the approval which Rose’s prettiness never 
failed to draw from her. “ We were talking about 
Lissy.” 

“ Don’t tell me she’s here.” Rose looked wor- 
ried. “ Say, Connie, I was hunting for you to ask 
if you wouldn’t just for to-day be an angel and 
take her off my hands. 

“ Perhaps that sounds like being a quitter,” she 
went on hastily, turning to Anne with a perplexed 
frown, “ but really I don’t mean it that way. Only 
I’m plain tired of having her tag me every minute.” 

“ I don’t wonder at it. Connie and I were just 
saying that she’s never missed a day.” Anne’s 
matter-of-fact way of understanding the situation 
smoothed the puckers out of her sister’s forehead 
at once. “ I think you’re doing wonders with her. 
You’ve taught her a lot already.” 

Rose looked pleased. “ It isn’t that I wish I 
had any of the other children,” she explained 
hastily, “ because I don’t. Lissy interests me, and 
she’s such a little scratch-cat with some people 
that — ^well, it makes me feel rather prideful to know 
that I can turn her into a perfect lamb.” 

254 


CHOCOLATES TO DOUGHNUTS 

“ ‘ My beau-ti-fool beeg sister/ ” quoted Connie, 
in excellent imitation, and then wished she hadn’t, 
because probably her sister wouldn’t like it. 

But Rose only made up a face and laughed. 
“ I’m only one of many ‘ beau-ti-fool ’ things,” she 
retorted. “ Sometimes I think that child is a little 
off,” she went on with perfect seriousness. “ She’s 
daffy about color; the only reason she bows down to 
me is because I have red cheeks and molasses-candy- 
colored hair. Why, the other day I nearly stepped 
on her when we were working in the garden, be- 
cause she was flat on her back in the deep grass, 
looking up at the sky, and singing over and over, 
‘ beau-ti-fool — beau-ti-fool.’ Would you believe 
anyone could be so cracked as that? ” 

“ I’d believe it — easy,” said Jim, who in his turn 
had come around the corner unperceived. ‘‘ Did 
you ever try it? ” he went on dreamily. “ The 
tall grass makes a kind of a green nest, and you 
half shut your eyes, and the sky looks a deep, deep 

blue, and you — well, you sort of float off ” 

Jimsey shook himself out of his rhapsody, and came 
back to earth with a snicker, for Rose was staring 
at him as if she thought he had gone mad. 

“Another of ’em,” she murmured helplessly, 
“ and in my own family, too. Perhaps Connie 
knows what you see in it, but I certainly don’t.” 

“ Try it some time and perhaps you will,” ad- 
255 


THE SHELDON SIX 

vised Connie, who had already given her brother a 
look of complete understanding. “ Rose, I wish 
you’d skip off now before Lissy comes. I can man- 
age her better if you’re not ’round, and I’ll keep her 
busy this morning.” 

“And I’ll take care of her this afternoon,” Anne 
offered. “ Why don’t you go to Miss Emeline and 
get started on your gardening costume? ” she sug- 
gested. “ Father told you that you might have 
it.” 

“ I know it; I’ve been so busy — there are so many 

things to do here ” Rose broke off with a 

laugh at sight of Anne’s amused face. “ I sup- 
pose you’re dying to tell me that wasn’t the way I 
talked when I first came. You may laugh if you 
like. I’m beginning to feel frightfully good- 
natured. I believe I could even stay at home and 
manage Lissy.” 

“ You’ll have a chance if you don’t skedaddle,” 
said Jim, who was walking on the railing and could 
see farther than the others. “ She’s coming now, 
and she’s got on that horrid, old, mud-colored dress 
that Mrs. Wilber gave you. Why didn’t you get 
someone to give you something decent? ” 

“How can I help it?” demanded Rose, poised 
for flight, but lingering. “ I hate it as much as you 
do. Fancy anyone who loves pretty colors having 
to wear that thing. Well, I’m really going now, 
256 


CHOCOLATES TO DOUGHNUTS 

and you needn’t expect me till you see me. Daddy 
said I could stop off garden work for a whole day. 
I may even go neighboring, Connie.” 

She heard Connie’s irresistible laughter over this 
last idea as she sped through the house, and she 
smiled in response. Then she snatched up her hat 
and departed, secure in the knowledge that she 
could get around the bend in the road before Lissy 
would realize that she was not at home. 

It wasn’t a bad idea of Anne’s, she meditated, 
that she should go and talk to Miss Emeline about 
the garden dress. She still wanted it, of course, 
but really there had been so many things on her 
mind lately. And when you had to do everything 
the best way you knew how, because an eager-eyed 
young person was watching every movement, it 
took time. 

Then, naturally, Brookfield had seemed a very 
different place with Archie and Roger coming over 
every day, and a chance to explore the country in 
their automobile. Only yesterday Archie had let 
her drive the greater part of the way, and had not 
needed to tell her anything. 

Thinking of the automobile made her mind jump 
to her father, who was going this afternoon with 
Miss Graham and Mr. Pearson to get material for 
an article on one of the old towns not far away. 
“ It took her to find out how much Daddy knows 
257 


THE SHELDON SIX 


about history and houses and gardens/’ Rose said to 
herself with a hint of envy. “ She’s got them all 
going. Daddy’s so interested in these articles; 
Mr. Pearson has sent for books on old furniture; 
the boys are always digging up something they 
think she ought to write about.” 

Whenever it had occurred to her during the last 
two weeks, Rose had been obliged to admit that her 
newest problem was no problem at all, because Miss 
Graham fitted into Brookfield life perfectly. As a 
matter of fact she couldn’t have told exactly what 
she had expected to happen, but, at any rate, she 
had fancied that Anne’s wonderful friend would 
give them all, particularly herself, good advice, and 
would always be watching to see if they followed it. 

“ But instead,” Rose was arguing the case as 
she walked along the tree-lined road, “ instead, 
though she seems to like us, she’s so keen about her 
work that she’s made us all interested in it. That 
is, all the others, I mean. Well, I never could be 
daffy about her the way Anne and Ellen and 
Connie are. She doesn’t bother me — ^much.” That 
mean little jealousy in regard to Anne and her 
father stirred within her as she thought this last, 
and she frowned impatiently. “An5rway,” her 
mind went on quickly, “ I’ve managed to keep Neil 
guessing as to how I feel,” and with this she dropped 
the subject, because she was going up the steps of 
258 


CHOCOLATES TO DOUGHNUTS 


Miss Emeline’s little shop, and as she opened the 
door, a jangling bell brought that small person, 
herself, from an inner room. 

“ Oh, my dear, I’m so glad to see you,” Miss 
Emeline said at once. “ You’re the first neighbor 
who’s happened in this morning, and I’ve really 
hated to ask anyone to come.” 

She looked even paler than usual, and her eyes 
were tired, and her welcoming hands trembled. If 
Rose had not known something of what she accom- 
plished, she would have supposed her a creature too 
fragile to be left alone. 

“ Why, what’s the matter. Miss Emmy? ” Rose 
liked the little name the children called her and 
thought it suited her. “ Tell me something to do 
and I’ll do it. I’m just neighboring, as Connie 
says.” She decided immediately that her real 
errand must be given up. One couldn’t ask any- 
one so tired as this to think of dress patterns. 

“ Well, that sounds good to me. Not that I 
want anything special done, but I’m thankful to 
have someone around. You see, Eunice went away 
yesterday morning and won’t be home till to-night; 
and this morning, while she was getting breakfast, 
our Manila, who always takes such care of me, 
had what she calls a ‘ stitch.’ I actually had to 
help her back into bed again — ^and make her stay 
there, too.” She was such a small, valiant creature, 
259 


THE SHELDON SIX 


and yet so weary, that Rose felt an impulse to pick 
her up in her strong young arms and put her in 
bed also. 

“ I wanted to telephone for the doctor,” Miss 
Emeline went on, “ but Marilla is the most stub- 
born creature. She said she’d get over it sooner if 
she kept warm and was let alone, so I tucked the 
hot-water bag under her side, and made her prom- 
ise that she wouldn’t try to get up until I said she 
might — ^which won’t be soon.” 

This last bit of defiance was spoken in a firm 
voice and Miss Emeline’s eyes sparkled. She took 
a duster from a cupboard back of the counter and 
began to wipe the woodwork. “ Excuse me for 
dusting when I have company,” she apologized. 
“ I usually do it the first thing after breakfast, and 
now — ^why, it’s ’most eleven.” 

“ I’m not company; I’m a member of the firm,” 
Rose said, and tugged gently at the duster. 
“ Please let me do it, or would you rather have me 
get dinner? ” She was conscious of her magnifi- 
cent audacity in proposing this last with such as- 
surance. Anne and Effie would be aghast, but they 
were half a mile away, and she was sure Miss Emmy 
didn’t know how little used she was to taking the 
responsibility of getting meals. 

“ Would you really do that? ” There was a note 
of gratitude in the tired voice that made Rose vow 
260 


CHOCOLATES TO DOUGHNUTS 

that she would stand by until better help came, and 
do anything she could. “ I was so anxious about 
Marilla I scarcely ate any breakfast and I’m be- 
ginning to feel just a little shaky. Suppose I let 
you go out and explore and give us a picked-up 
lunch,” Miss Emeline ended with charming con- 
fidence. “ It’s so warm we shan’t need a hot 
dinner.” 

“All right; I’ll begin now. And please don’t 
dust, because I’ll do that afterwards.” 

“ You’re a darling,” Miss Emmy said warmly, 
and wondered why she had never appreciated be- 
fore the good qualities of this member of the Shel- 
don family. 

Getting the lunch was so absurdly easy that Rose 
couldn’t pride herself on any particular capacity. 
Her first look in the ice-box showed her lettuce, 
cold potatoes and string-beans, and a jar of home- 
made salad dressing which she tasted critically. 

“ La ! La ! Tres bon,” she said airily, and won- 
dered if her French teacher would approve of this 
expression. “ Probably the adjective’s the wrong 
gender; anything as nice as salad-dressing ought to 
be feminine if it isn’t.” 

She boiled two eggs Hard and set the saucepan 
under running water to cool them. She filled the 
teakettle, and went to ask Miss Emmy how she 
liked to have her tea made. She found a delicious- 
261 


THE SHELDON SIX 


looking cake in the pantry, and poured creamy 
milk into a quaint blue and white pitcher. 

While she was in the dining-room setting the 
table the shop-door-bell rang, and a little later she 
could hear Miss Emeline telling a customer that 
Miss Rose Sheldon was helping her, and that she 
really shovildn’t need to bother anyone else. 

“ Goodness, no! ” Rose said to herself with an ap- 
proving nod. “ If I’m going to help I want to do 
it my way and not have anyone else mixing in. 
Please stick to that, little Miss Emmy.” 

It really was an appetizing lunch, and Miss 
Emmy ate with relish and chatted and laughed like 
a girl. Then she insisted on taking tea and toast 
up-stairs, herself, for fear Marilla would object 
to having a stranger come in. Rose contented her- 
self with carrying the tray to the door of the room, 
and felt like a giant of strength beside the frail 
little lady whose spirit was not to be daunted. 

Then she went down-stairs to clear the table and 
wash the dishes in the most approved manner. She 
flattered herself that she knew how things should be 
done, even though she did not care to do them as a 
mle. Anyway, it was easier to wash Miss Emmy’s 
dishes than one’s own. 

‘‘ Oh, my dear, I didn’t mean to have you do all 
this,” Miss Emeline said with dismay when she came 
down with the tray. ‘‘ I telephoned this morning 
262 


CHOCOLATES TO DOUGHNUTS 

for Abbie Toms, who always comes to help us when 
we need her, but to-day she can’t get here till four 
o’clock. I meant to tell you to leave the dishes for 
her.” Her voice wavered into a yawn, and she 
swayed dizzily. “Excuse me; I’m sleepy,” she 
apologized. “ I never sleep so well when Eunice 
is away, and last night I heard every hour strike.” 

“ Miss Emmy, if you’ll trust me,” Rose began 
eagerly, “ I’ll take care of the shop and you can 
have a nap. I never have sold anything, but I 
know how to make change, and I don’t believe I 
shall do anything very wrong. Aren’t the prices 
all marked? ” 

“Yes; in my plainest hand. But I hate to have 
you indoors when I know you and your friends must 
have some jolly plan for this afternoon.” 

“ I haven’t a plan, so please let me stay,” Rose 
urged. 

“Well,” assented Miss Emmy doubtfully, and 
then, forcing herself to great briskness, “ come into 
the shop, then, and let me show you where a few of 
the things are.” 

She led the way and pointed out some of the most 
essential articles; then she opened a drawer. 
“ Here are some dress-goods. Isn’t this pretty?” 
She took out a material striped in blue and white. 
“ It’s a remnant, and Eunice got it very cheap. I 
washed a little bit of it and it didn’t fade a mite, 
263 


THE SHELDON SIX 


and it will wear forever. There’s just about enough 
of it for a girl of nine or ten.” Miss Emeline hung 
it over the back of a chair, and Rose made mental 
notes as to what she should say to a customer 
about it. 

“ Oh, here’s the khaki-colored material you 
thought you’d have. See, I tucked the style-book 
in there with a picture of the farmerette suit.” 
Miss Eunice turned the pages with a practiced hand. 
“ Can’t you see yourself leaning on a hoe and look- 
ing just like that? ” 

“ Goodness, no! I hope I’m not such a floppy- 
looking individual. But I like the dress just as 
well as I did at first; which is a relief, because I 
was afraid it wouldn’t look the same to me.” 

“Are you a changeable sort of person? ” 

“ I suppose I am. At home they never seem to 
expect me to stick to anything very long.” 

“ Oh, now you’re not putting the proper value 
on yourself, I’m sure.” Miss Emeline regarded 
Rose keenly, and then shook her head. “No! 
You can’t make me believe you’re anybody’s 
weathercock. Not with those steady eyes and that 
firm chin. Of course any sensible person changes 
her mind sometimes ; particularly when she’s made 
it up wrong the first time. That’s progress, you 
know.” She turned to close the drawer, but Rose 
forestalled her. 


264 


CHOCOLATES TO DOUGHNUTS 

“ Please, please go and lie down, and I’ll put 
these away. I — I’d like to look at them and 
plan, but you’re not to be bothered with them 
to-day.” 

“ Wait till I’ve had forty winks and then see.” 
Miss Emmy was rebellious, but she departed, never- 
theless, and Rose went into the sitting-room with 
her to make sure that she was comfortable. Five 
minutes later she closed the sitting-room door 
softly and came back into the shop, where the sun- 
shine was having a rainbow game with the glass 
candy-jars on the shelves. 

“ My ! Lissy would like this,” she thought at once, 
as her eyes wandered around the room in search of 
the shimmering patches of color. She sat down on 
a stool behind the counter, but jumped up again 
hastily to get the duster. On the other side of the 
shop the bright sunshine was showing up dust 
which the tired little lady had missed seeing. After 
that she found more dust. Finally she tucked the 
duster back again, and once more perched herself 
on the stool. 

“ I suppose I ought to have shaken that duster,” 
she meditated, and then decided to wait, because if 
she opened the shop-door, the bell would ring and 
might wake Miss Emmy. Then it occurred to her 
that this would be likely to happen if anyone came 
in; so, finding nothing better to use, she got out 
265 


THE SHELDON SIX 

the duster again, and standing on the stool muffled 
the bell. 

Then she took a leisurely survey of the contents 
of the show-case, and, that over, glanced at the clock 
to find, to her surprise, that only half an hour — 
worse still, only twenty-seven and a half minutes 
had gone by since she had shut the door upon Miss 
Emmy. 

She picked up the style-book and studied the 
picture of the floppy farmerette, as she mentally 
called her. She decided that it wouldn’t be so very 
hard to make that costume. She remembered that 
it didn’t look quite so stylish on Miss Eunice, but, 
of course, it made a big difference who wore it, and 
she was calmly certain that she would suit it better 
than Miss Eunice did. She yawned and looked at 
the clock. Seven more minutes gone! 

Then there was a listless turning of the pages 
until she came to one in color — pretty, summery 
dresses for children of all ages. The children 
themselves were doll-like creatures, all except one, 
who reminded her of Lissy; that is, of Lissy as she 
might look if she were prettily dressed. The fash- 
ion-child’s dress was made of a striped goods 
trimmed with a plain color — suddenly Rose lifted 
her eyes to the chair where the blue and white mate- 
rial still hung. 

The clock had been racing for fifteen minutes 
266 


CHOCOLATES TO DOUGHNUTS 


when she looked at it again. And just then she 
was conscious that someone was coming up the 
steps, and she jmnped to her feet and went to- 
ward the door. 

“ Sh! Oh, I’m so glad it’s you, Archie. Sh!” 
she said even before the door was open. 

“ Hello! I ” began Archie, but got no far- 

ther, for, dislodged by the opening of the door, the 
duster with which Rose had muffled the bell 
dropped and enveloped his head in a surprisingly 
efficient way. It was a large, clinging duster, and 
contact with it made him sneeze uncontrollably. 

“Sh! Pie-ease be quiet. I do so want Miss 
Emeline to sleep,” begged Rose. 

“ Hr-r-rash ! Ah-kish-shoo ! ” responded Archie, 
trying ineffectually to pull off the shrouding folds. 
“ Why don’t you — hr-r-rash ! — ^help a fellow? ” In 
his misery he let go of the door, which closed with 
a loud jangling of its bell. 

“ Oh, I didn’t want that bell to ring! And 
please don’t sneeze so. There! ” Rose pulled the 
cloth from his head and looked at him reproachfully. 

“ Great Scott! How can I help sneezing with a 
dusty old duster over my nose? How did it get 
up there anyway? Ugh! I can taste it.” He 
blew vigorously, and spatted his upstanding hair 
with both hands. “ I feel as if I ought to be 
beaten — ^like a carpet,” he ended ruefully. 

267 


THE SHELDON SIX! 

sorry/’ Rose began witH sucK unusual 
meekness that Archie softened at once. The next 
moment, however, she spoiled the good effect she 
had made by clapping her hands over her mouth 
and shaking with soundless laughter. “ Oh, do for- 
give me,” she said as soon as she could. “ It was 
funny, and you look terribly fierce — ^and I — I 
thought I was so smart to put that thing up there. 
Glory! Suppose it had been someone — someone 
that really counted! ” 

“Well, of all Archie stared at her in 

hurt surprise, but before she had time to realize 
the enormity of her last remark, the funny side of 
the whole thing had struck him. “ You do beat the 
Dutch,” he said when he had recovered from a pro- 
longed chuckle. “ You won’t be allowed to hear 
the last of that for some time.” 

“ Did you come to buy anj^thing? ” Rose be- 
came suddenly conscious of her duties as shop- 
keeper. 

“No, I came to see you. Mrs. — Mrs. — well, 
anyway, one of your neighbors was in here this 
morning, and she heard you were here and told 
Anne.” 

“ Oh, yes. Does Lissy know? ” 

“ Not yet. She’s mooning around, trying to 
take an interest in the rest of the family, but not 
succeeding very well.” 


268 


CHOCOLATES TO DOUGHNUTS 


Rose felt a secret gratification, but managed to 
look indifferent. 

“ I’m almost forgetting my errand,” Archie said 
suddenly. “ We’ve been planning to go for a hike 
and I came over to get you.” 

‘‘ I can’t go.” Rose was almost violent in her de- 
cisiveness. She wanted to go so much she did not 
dare to give way the least little bit. For a mo- 
ment she even wondered whether the forty winks 
Miss Emeline had planned might be almost ac- 
complished. Then — “ No, I can’t go,” she said 
again, as if the exact repetition made it more bind- 
ing. 

‘‘ Well, you needn’t be cross about it,” Archie 
replied amiably. “ Why can’t you go? Miss 
Emeline wouldn’t mind. I’d just as soon ask her.” 
He took a step toward the door of the sitting-room, 
looking as though he really meant to go in, and 
Rose jumped before him noiselessly. 

“ No, you don’t. Of course she’d say I needn’t 
stay, and that’s the very reason I wouldn’t ask 
her.” 

“ Don’t be so fierce. You scare a little delicate 
thing like me.” Archie stretched his five feet nine 
and three-quarters to its fullest extent and beamed 
on her good-naturedly. There was something in 
his expression Rose could not fathom. If it had 
not seemed foolish to think so she would have 
269 


THE SHELDON SIX 

guessed that he was trying to make her go, hut 
hoped she wouldn’t. 

“ Well, you know your father and Miss Graham 
have Susan and Jim with them, and they’ve tele- 
phoned they can’t get home to supper, so the rest 
of us, including you, think we’ll take a lunch,” 
Archie’s voice was full of pleasant possibilities, 
“ and cook bacon and roast potatoes, and if Neil and 

Ellen can go I’ll take my car, and — and ” he 

hesitated, trying to think of something yet more 
tempting. 

“ I think you’re downright mean to keep telling 
me how nice it’s going to be when you know I can’t 
go.” Rose’s voice was low, but very stern, and 
before he was prepared for any such action she 
had turned him toward the door and was pushing 
him strongly. “ I wish you’d hike now — right out 
of this shop — and for all I care you may toast 
bacon and roast potatoes for the rest of the sum- 
mer.” By this time she had opened the door so 
gently that the bell had scarcely tinkled. “ Shoo! 
Shoo ! ” she said softly. 

“ Say, I’m not a hen,” Archie protested in an 
injured tone. “Anyway, now I think of it, I’ve got 
to buy something, and it’s your fault that I have 
to spend my money so foolishly.” He skilfully 
evaded her clutch, slid through the doorway and 
walked over to the counter. “ I’ll take this,” 
270 


CHOCOLATES TO DOUGHNUTS 

he said, indicating a candy box of the pound 
size. 

It’s eighty cents; will you have it sent or take 
it with you? ” responded Rose in her most capable 
manner. And then, as if the strangeness of it had 
just struck her, “ What do you mean, my fault? ” 
Archie looked doubtful as to whether it would be 
best for him to explain. ‘‘ Why, you see, Anne and 
I bet — no, that’s wrong; I’ve got to start over again. 
Anne said she wouldn’t make a real bet, the kind 
that costs money, you know, and, anyway, if she 
would bet, she wouldn’t bet because this was a sure 
thing — she knew she was right. Get me? ” 

“ No ! Go on and don’t be any more foolish than 
you can help.” Rose had the air of one who hated 
to be trifled with, and Archie chuckled softly. 

“ Well, it was this way. I bet Anne a pound of 
chocolates that I could tease you into going on this 
hike, and she wouldn’t bet, but she declared you 
wouldn’t go unless someone had come to stay with 
Miss Emeline. She said she’d wager a fresh dough- 
nut, and it would mean just as much faith in you 
as if she’d put up her whole fortune.” 

“ Chocolates to doughnuts,” remarked Rose, 
fondly fancying that he couldn’t tell by her face 
how pleased she was. “ Did Nan really say that — 
that last, or are you making it up? ” 

“ Sure thing she said it, and now I’ve got to go 
271 


THE SHELDON SIX 


back and ’fess up that she was right. Good-bye.” 
Archie slipped out noiselessly, but a moment later 
he opened the door with caution and poked his head 
in. 

“ I forgot to tell you,” he said, “ that before I 
started over here we decided that, instead of a hike, 
we’d make it a home supper on the Sheldon estate. 
I’m going back to freeze the ice-cream, and later 
I’ll get Ellen and Neil. We hope to have the 
pleasure of your company.” He was gone again 
before she could answer. 

She stooped to pick up the duster, and when she 
stood erect the door was opening slowly and softly, 
and once more Archie’s head appeared. 

“ In spite of the fact that you’ve been so rude to 
me, I just thought I’d say I’m glad you were so 
stubborn,” he said with a grin, and this time van- 
ished permanently. 

“Well, of all things!” exclaimed Rose, and 
started to muffle the bell again, but concluded it 
might not be safe. Probably Miss Emmy wouldn’t 
want to sleep much longer, and the shop didn’t 
seem very popular this afternoon. She thought of 
Archie’s visit with a smile. “ What would he have 
done if I’d said I would go?” she asked herself. 
“ I’d have made him carry out his plan. That was 
dear of Anne to feel so sure I wouldn’t desert Miss 
Emeline. I’m glad I didn’t let her down.” 

272 


CHOCOLATES TO DOUGHNUTS 


In the next hour she sold candy twice, and sew- 
ing-silk and a basket. J ust after this last customer 
had departed. Miss Emeline appeared in a pretty 
lavender-sprigged gown, looking marvellously re- 
freshed. 

“ My dear, thanks to you, I’m rested, and Ma- 
nila’s better. She wants to get up, but I won’t let 
her, because in another hour I shall have Eunice 
and Abbie Toms both here. And now I’m going to 
show you about that dress.” Before Rose could 
stop her she had whipped the khaki-colored material 
from the drawer, and was running through a col- 
lection of patterns with her expert fingers. 

“ Oh, Miss Emmy! ” Rose put her smooth, young 
hand on the frail, wrinkled one. She wanted to 
say something and she hated to say it. Then she 
had a sudden vision of Lissy: the dark hair and pale 
skin, the big, beauty-loving eyes, the mud-colored 
dress in which she had last seen her. “ Miss Emmy, 
I made up my mind wrong the first time; do you 
mind if I change it? That’s — ‘ that’s progress,’ you 
know.” 


273 


CHAPTER XV 


NEIL GOES AWAY 

“ Have you almost finished it, Posy? ” Anne had 
followed to the front porch as her sister was de- 
parting for the fourth day in succession. Being 
one of those persons who has to put through every- 
thing planned at top speed, Rose had begged for a 
leave of absence from the garden, and was availing 
herself of the chance to work with Miss Emeline’s 
sewing-machine and under her direction. 

“ Oh, for goodness’ sake don’t ask me that.” 
Protracted labor with a needle had made Rose ir- 
ritable, and she turned to Anne with a frown. 
“ The day after I began it Susan wanted to know 
if it was ’most done, and Connie has been at me 
every day about it. I think it will be finished this 
afternoon, though,” she conceded, reluctant to make 
any promise about it. 

‘‘ It’s a shame you didn’t make it as soon as 
Daddy said you could have it,” Anne went on. 
‘‘ The worst of the garden work is over now. You’ll 
hardly need to wear it.” 

“ Don’t you worry about its not being worn ; 

274 


NEIL GOES AJVAI 


there’ll be plenty of chances — if I ever get it 
finished.” Rose’s manner was still ungracious, but 
she had turned away so that Anne could not see 
her face. By the way, when Lissy gets here just 
send her over, will you? I want to see her about 
something.” 

“ Well, you’re certainly not letting us have the 
care of her,” Anne said admiringly. “ She’s been 
there every day.” 

“ Miss Emetine’s teaching her to sew. I guess 
she thinks that part of her education will be 
neglected if it’s left to me,” Rose explained with a 
laugh. ‘‘ Lissy has the cleverest fingers you ever 
saw. She made a perfectly corking doll’s bonnet 
yesterday, out of scraps of silk and velvet and a dab 
of lace. Miss Emeline thinks she can be trained 
to be a milliner. Poor Lissy! Fancy sitting still 
all day and poking a needle in and out,” 

Perhaps she’d like it,” Anne demurred. “ Are 
you coming home to dinner, Rose, to-day? ” 

‘‘ I don’t believe so. Miss Emmy teases me to 
stay, and it saves time. I suppose you’re laughing 
at me for being so neighborly, but I don’t care.” 

“ I’m not either.” Anne was forcible in her de- 
nial. “ Of course you didn’t think you would be 
neighborly, but that was before you got here. 
Naturally, anyone may change her mind.” 

“ Sure thing! ” Rose whirled around looking sur- 
275 


THE SHELDON SIX 


prisingly cheerful. “ IVe turned mine topsy-turvy 
a million times since IVe been here. But chang- 
ing your mind when you’ve made it up wrong the 
first time is progress. Oh, you needn’t look so sur- 
prised at my wisdom — that’s borrowed. Miss 
Emmy said it, and I’ve decided she knows pretty 
nearly everything. Well, good-bye. I mustn’t 
stay here talking if I want to finish that dress.” 

Rose started off at a rapid pace, but after a 
little went more slowly, because the J uly sun seemed 
to be trying to tell her that hurrying was a bad 
thing. 

“ I suppose in the city the heat is terrible,” she 
said to herself. “ I’m sure that in Melford we 
should be sitting around with fans and thinking we 
didn’t want to do anything. Here it’s only a little 
more than pleasantly warm.” 

In her pink dress and big white hat she looked 
the embodiment of summer. Quite unconsciously 
her eyes were taking in the beauty of the distant 
hills, of the wooded stretches, dappled by sunshine 
and shadow, of the near field, where the wheat was 
rippled by a passing breeze. Involuntarily she 
stopped and gazed, and felt vaguely stirred by the 
loveliness of it all. For a fleeting moment she 
seemed a part of it; she was the soft wind ruffling 
the wheat; she was the bright air; she was the gay 
butterfly fluttering by on painted wing. 

276 


NEIL GOES AWAY 


In the next breath she was conscious of the dusty 
road again, with its bordering stone-wall and the 
ordinary country shrubbery drooping in the sun. 
She felt queer and somewhat worried. Daddy had 
accused her of growing an imagination; was this a 
part of it, she wondered. 

With a sigh she shrugged herself into her usual 
calm indifference toward Nature. ‘‘ It is pretty 
here,” she admitted, as she walked on a little more 
quickly than before. “I shall have to change my 
mind for the million and wunth time, and say I love 
it and I hope we shall come here next summer.” 
With which wholesale giving up of her previous 
opinions she walked up the steps of Miss Emeline's 
shop, and at the welcoming jangle of the bell fell at 
once into a workaday mood. 

The day went on, and at half-past three, after an 
unwonted stillness on the part of the Sheldon 
family, Susan came out on the front porch. Or- 
dinarily she refused to take any time for rest, but, 
to-day she had had an absorbing morning with the 
Becker twins, and then had gratified her family by 
falling asleep directly after dinner. Now, rested, 
tubbed and freshly clothed, she had been sent out 
with urgent instructions to keep clean and cool un- 
til Anne and Connie should join her. 

She scrutinized the top step and then sat down 
with her crisp dress spreading out around her like 
277 


THE SHELDON SIX 


the corolla of a flower. Susan hated to be respon- 
sible for a clean, pretty dress like this, and she 
wondered why she had asked to wear it this after- 
noon. She had not dreamed that Anne would let 
her wear it on just a plain every-day, but Anne had 
said she might as well, because it would soon be too 
small for her. Which meant, Susan told herself 
exultantly, that she should soon be too big for it. 

‘‘ Everyone has to be still and careful sometimes,” 
she thought with a yawn. She smoothed the pro- 
truding folds of her dress and surveyed with satis- 
faction her recently-cleaned white shoes. It was 
in her mind that Jimsey would be home soon from 
the drive he was taking with Ellis and Roger, and 
she was hoping that he would be dusty and dis- 
hevelled. ‘‘ Anyway, when he sees me looking so — 
so spick and spandy I guess it’ll make him feel 
dirty,” she meditated. Often Jimsey said scolding 
things to her about her hands and face, and did not 
want her to get too close to him while he was draw- 
ing. 

It was lonesome out here on the steps. She 
wished Anne and Connie would hurry. She could 
not see why big girls should fuss so much about hair 
and hands and finger-nails. “ Ears are the worst,” 
she mused. “ If they spend as much time looking 
into their own ears as they do into mine they’ll never 
get out here.” 


278 


NEIL GOES AWAY. 


To Susan it seemed an astonishingly still after- 
noon, and she began to dislike sitting here alone 
with no one passing to see how unusually clean she 
looked. She half decided that she would go around 
to the side porch where she could see the garden. 
She could think of many things she would do if she 
were not so clean. 

“ If I went out there Jimsey wouldn’t see me 
right spang off,” she thought with a sigh. “ There’s 
Rose and Lissy, too; p’raps they’ll come soon and 
they’ll see me looking so pretty. I guess I can 
stick it out right here.” 

She shut her lips firmly and arranged her dress 
again. Then she turned her toes out, and after- 
wards tried the effect of turning them in; finally she 
crossed her ankles and folded her hands. 

After a while the sound of running water struck 
her ear, and standing up to investigate, she found 
that somebody had left the hose on the front lawn, 
and it was running gently. 

“ I b’lieve that careless Jimsey left that hose 
there,” Susan said aloud. It was a sore point with 
her that Jim was permitted to use the hose, while 
she was not even allowed to touch it. ‘‘ Daddy 
always says it didn’t ought to be left in one place a 
long time.” 

She went down the steps and stood looking at the 
long hose, the nozzle of which was lying in the 
279 


THE SHELDON SIX 


grass some distance away. A small stream of 
water was wetting the ground in one spot just as 
Susan had supposed. 

“ I could walk out there — and hold it ’way off 
from me — and turn off that water just as easy,” she 
said slowly, illustrating with her small clean hands 
just how she meant to do it. 

“ P’raps nobody will come for a long, long 
time.” From her tone one would have guessed 
that it might be years. “ I can’t see anyone com- 
ing.” She glanced at the sky and then at the 
ground, as if a possible helper might fall down or 
spring up, and she quite failed to notice that in the 
distance Mr. Bonaparte was approaching with his 
usual brisk home-coming gait. Then she took a 
tentative step into the grass and lifted her foot to 
see the result. The white shoe was still clean and 
perfectly dry, and her face brightened. 

“ ’Course Anne didn’t mean I should sit still 
when there was something like this that ought to 
be done,” she said softly, and straightway walked 
in the direction of the nozzle. 

Just as she reached it, fate, which pulls the 
strings of chance so queerly, made several things 
happen at the same time: Anne and Connie came 
out on the porch looking expectantly for Susan; 
Mr. Bonaparte deposited Roger and Jimsey on the 
sidewalk, and was driven to the barn by Ellis; from 
280 


NEIL GOES AWAY 


another direction Archie and Mr. Pearson came 
speedily, and stopped the car in front of the house. 

Absorbed in her own excellent intentions, Susan 
was oblivious to this gathering of friends and rel- 
atives, but became acutely conscious all at once that 
her cherished shoes were squishing in soaked grass. 
Nevertheless, she was sternly determined to accom- 
plish what she had come for and to do it without 
wetting her dress. Hating to go further in the wet 
grass she leaned and stretched and finally grasped 
the hose at some little distance back of the nozzle. 

At exactly that instant Anne called sharply, 
“ Oh, Susan, don’t touch that hose! Come away! ” 

Startled from her toes up, Susan swayed and 
nearly fell forward, but recovered her balance with 
a jerk which flapped the nozzle in her direction, and 
sent the stream of water straight into her face and 
neck. 

“ Wow! ” she gasped as soon as she could get her 
breath. “I’m dwowning!” It did not occur to 
her, however, to drop the hose; she only fumbled 
blindly, trying to turn it off. 

“ Oh, Jimsey, take it away from her,” begged 
Anne, but it was Roger who first responded to her 
call and went leaping across the lawn. 

Susan greeted him with a joyous shout. “ I’ve 
found out how you turn it,” she cried, whirling in 
his direction, and doing something to the nozzle 
281 


THE SHELDON SIX 


which caused a stream three times as powerful as 
the previous one to hit Roger full in the chest. 

“ Oh, ’sense me; I turned it the wrong way,” 
she apologized, and flopped it again, this time al- 
most knocking over Jimsey, who had thought to 
execute a flank movement. 

“Drop it! Drop it! You little goose,” he 
spluttered, making a wild dash for it, and uninten- 
tionally pushing the nozzle straight upward, so that 
in its fall the water descended upon all three of 
them. 

“ Huh! ” retorted Susan. “ Who’s a goose now? 
I’ll turn it off,” and she did it upon the instant. 
“ That’s what I came over here to do,” she ended 
with righteous scorn as she started toward the house. 
She was dripping from head to foot, but there was 
a spirited gleam in her eye, and deep within her 
the guilty consciousness of having enjoyed it all. 

“ Oh, Susan, you know ” 

“ Yes, I know I’m not ’lowed to touch the hose,” 
Susan broke in, shivering as the cool water trickled 
down her neck. “ You can make me go right in 
and take off this dress and these shoes. That’ll be 
a punishment — a great big punishment for me.” 
She was so afraid that Anne would say she must 
go to bed that she hastened to provide another 
penalty. “You can make me put on my oldest 
play-dress,” she suggested hopefully, and then, be- 
282 


NEIL GOES AWAY 


cause she knew this would be no real punishment, 
added, “ you can tell me to keep all by myself, and 
not to — ^not to come near the fambly.” 

Anne’s spirit caught a message from Susan’s 
which told her that this last was the thing that 
counted. ‘‘ Very well, then. Remember that 
you’re to stay somewhere in the garden, but you’re 
not to come near the family — no matter what hap- 
pens,” she decreed soberly. “ Now go in and ask 
Effie very politely if she’ll help you change your 
clothes.” 

Susan looked hopefully at Connie and then at 
Archie, as if half expecting that they would inter- 
cede for her. Then she tilted her head defiantly 
and walked straight into the house. 

“ It wouldn’t be any punishment for me to 
change my clothes,” Roger said plaintively. “ How 
’bout it, Jim? ” 

“ Same here. Come on up and we’ll find some 
dry togs,” answered Jim with a manly air. And 
then Ellis, coming in from the barn, took Roger off 
up-stairs with him. 

Five minutes later Ellen and Miss Graham ap- 
peared, with Neil in his chair pushed by the devoted 
Hegan. Anne marshalled them around to the side 
porch, which was cooler and more capacious, and to 
her joy, found her father there. Miss Graham was 
eager to show to him and Mr. Pearson a letter she 
283 


THE SHELDON SIX 


had received from a critical reader of one of her 
articles, and in two minutes the three of them were 
deep in a discussion. Archie sat on the railing be- 
side Neil’s chair and began to describe to him and 
Ellen Susan’s latest escapade, so Anne slipped into 
the kitchen, where she found Connie already get- 
ting out glasses. 

“ I knew you’d want it,” Connie said briefly. 
“Wasn’t it lucky we made that fresh syrup this 
morning? It’ll only take a jiffy to get this ready.” 

After a while Roger came down the back stairs, 
feeling self-conscious in borrowed clothes. “ Let 
Connie and me do this, Anne,” he begged, “ and 
you go on out. Perhaps I’ll get used to myself by 
the time the tray has to be carried out.” 

Anne agreed and left them. A few minutes 
later Ellis and Jimsey went out of the front door 
in search of the family and were drawn by the sound 
of voices to the side porch. At the same time a 
small figure in a faded dress paused on its way 
across the kitchen to give a despairing glance at the 
festive preparations. Roger wanted to tuck a cooky 
into Susan’s hand, but she shook her head mutely 
and went into the garden. 

“ Where’s Rose? ” asked Jean Graham, as Ellis 
sprang to place a table for the tray Roger was 
bringing. “ I miss Rose.” 

“ She’s at Miss Emeline’s finishing her farmer- 
284 


NEIJL GOES AWAY. 

ette dress. She’ll be here soon, I hope, and show 
it to us,” explained Anne, resolving that she would 
tell Rose what Miss Graham had said. “ Do you 
mind pouring the lemonade? Ellis seems to have 
put the table nearest you.” 

“ Why — I thought she looked — ^well, as if she 
could do it nicely,” Ellis said, and then feeling un- 
usually brave added, “ That’s an awfully pretty 
dress you’ve got on. Miss Graham. I — I like to 
see you pouring lemonade on our porch.” 

“ Thank you, Ellis. That’s the nicest compli- 
ment I’ve had in a long time. Isn’t there some- 
thing I can do for you? ” 

“ You might give me more sugar,” Ellis ac- 
cepted promptly. “ The girls never make it sweet 
enough for me.” 

“ Good reason why, old bear,” said Connie, giv- 
ing him a tap as she passed with the cooky-plate. 
“ It would be too sweet for everyone else if we did.” 

“ I’ll put the cookies back,” offered Jimsey, and 
took the plate from his sister’s hand. Then under 
cover of this errand, he sidled around the table and 
said shyly, so that no one but Miss Graham could 
hear, “ I think you look very nice — and I don’t 
want any extra sugar, either.” He slipped back to 
his perch on the railing before she could answer, 
but the first time he dared to look at her he got an 
understanding smile, to which he bashfully re- 
285 


THE SHELDON SIX 

sponded, and then turned his head toward the 
garden. 

Out near the tall hollyhocks something caught 
his eye. It was Susan, with a piece of cheese-cloth 
flung around one shoulder and held daintily in her 
finger-tips. “ Will you look at Susan? ” Jimsey 
said with a chuckle, and as the others followed the 
direction of his finger, Susan’s voice, which on oc- 
casions could be powerful, came distinctly to their 
ears. 

“ Oh, I am so happy, so-o happy, so ha-a-a-py,” 
she sang, whirling dizzily, and holding the fluttering 
cheese-cloth as high as her arms could reach. 

Banished? ” asked Mr. Sheldon, looking at 
Anne. 

“ Banished,” answered Ajine firmly, though she 
looked disturbed. 

“ Ha-ap-py like a bird,” warbled Susan, appar- 
ently reaching her top note on the last word. In 
some mysterious way she seemed to realize that she 
had attracted the attention of her family, and she 
whirled faster, and made strange movements with 
her arms. 

“ Oh, the poor little kid,” said Archie. “ She 
means just the opposite to what she says. Mayn’t 
I go out and get her, Ajine? Or take out some 
lemonade? ” 

‘‘ No,” said Anne, hating to seem so hard- 
286 


NElL GOES AWAY 

hearted, but sure she was right. “You see, Daddy 
had told her positively not to touch the hose,’’ she 
explained to Miss Graham and Ellen, “ and she set 
her own pimishment.” 

“ Yes, but she didn’t know there were going to 
be ‘ eats,’ ” persisted Archie. “ You might let 


But Anne was shaking her head before he had 
finished. “ It’s nice of you to want to do it, but 
this is her third adventure with the hose, and I 
mustn’t give in.” It was greatly to her relief at 
that moment to hear Rose and Lissy talking as they 
came around from the front of the house, and she 
got up, meaning to meet them and tell her sister 
who was here. Rose did not like surprises. 

Before she could carry out her intention, Rose’s 
voice sent a greeting ahead. “ Hello, folkses, 
where are you? Please get together to meet my 
new gown,” and the next minute she appeared at 
the end of the porch, smiling, flushed, and looking 
her prettiest, but dressed just as her sister had seen 
her when she went away that morning. 

Anne looked her astonishment. “ Why, I 

thought — I thought she began, and then her 

glance found Lissy, radiant in a dress of blue and 
white which charmingly set off her dusky hair and 
sparkling eyes. 

“ It ees my dress. Miss Anne. She have made 
287 


THE SHELDON SIX 


it for me. You can know that, because it ees the — 
the exactly right for me. See, Miss Ellen, it have 
pockets ” Lissy was darting from one to an- 

other to point out the beauties of her new treasure. 

Rose, not yet recovered from the surprise of find- 
ing so many, felt sure it must seem to Miss Graham 
and the others that she was anxious to show off her 
good deeds before the world. For an instant the 
urgent need of explaining that she did not know 
they were there oppressed her; then the sight of 
Daddy, stretching out his hand in congratulation, 
with a look of pride in her which she could not 
mistake, dispelled her worry. After all it did not 
matter about her part of it as long as Lissy had her 
dress. 

“ Daddy, how do you like it? ” she questioned 
eagerly. “ Father was the only one who knew,” 
she added, turning to Miss Graham, “ and he’s 
grown so absent-minded over the article he’s writing 
that I expected any day to have him ask me about 
Lissy’s dress right before Anne. He tries so hard 
to take an interest in our secrets, don’t you. 
Daddy? ” She gave him a little hug in passing, 
and went to sit beside Ellen and Neil, whom she 
hadn’t seen for two days. 

“ Father never even hinted,” said Anne. “ I — I 
think you are wonderful. Posy. Come, Lissy, let’s 
show Miss Graham how pretty it is.” 

288 


NEIL GOES AWAY 


“ I shall take it off before I go,” observed Lissy, 
gloating over the dress. “ But it shall go wiz me 
in a paper. I have telled the women over in Mill 
Hollow that I will put it on for to viseet them eef 
they make the room clean for me. This so beauti- 
fool dress cannot go into a dirty room.” She 
smoothed it gently, and there was a touching pride 
in her eyes. “ Now, since yesterday, when I have 
telled them eet is mos' fineeshed, they scr-r-ub,” she 
ended simply. 

“ Lissy, you must tell that to Miss Dean. 
You’re a born reformer,” Jean Graham said, and 
then she examined the new dress, commenting on 
all its beauties to the child’s intense delight. 

Later, when the conversation had drifted to other 
subjects, Roger interrupted suddenly by saying un- 
der his breath, “ Look at Lissy now. She’s showing 
off for Susan.” 

Like a model in a fashion show, Lissy was walk- 
ing up and down at the far end of the porch, pre- 
tending to have no idea that Susan’s sturdy figure 
was almost within reach. Once in a while she cast 
an indifferent glance in that direction, to see if she 
were being observed, but for the most part she 
ignored the small person who stood watching. 

Susan, intensely lonely in spirit, had crept as 
near her family as she thought she could without 
breaking her promise to Anne. But with the ar- 
289 


THE SHELDON SIX 


rival of Lissy, resplendent in a new dress, appar- 
ently much admired by everyone, bitterness had en- 
tered the heart of the outcast. It was not so long 
ago that she had been clean and beautiful, and no 
one had come to admire her until it was too late. 

She picked up a tiny pebble and tossed it lightly 
in the direction of Lissy ’s proudly-stepping feet, at 
the same time saying in a low voice, “ It isn't so 
pretty as my dwess.” 

Lissy jumped with an affectation of fright. 
“ Oh,” she called piercingly, “ Mees Rose, come 
queeck! The little Susan she have throwed a rock 
at me. And she tell me that my dress is not so 
pretty as hers.” She paused to glare at Susan, 
then went on excitedly, “ Look at this so lovely dress 
and then at hers. I ask you ” her chin quiv- 

ered, and she burst into sobs broken by miintelligi- 
ble words. 

Anne reached the end of the porch first. “ Why, 
Susan, what made you ” 

“ ’Twasn’t a wock,” Susan interrupted, glad in 
her inmost heart to be the centre of family interest 
again. “ It was a little squinchy pebble as big as 
this,” she held up the tip of her smallest finger. 
“And I meant my beautiful white dress, not this 
one.” 

“ Susan, it was mean of you to say that when you 
could see how happy Lissy was,” scolded Rose. 

290 


NEIL GOES AWAY 

And then, in desperation, “ Now, Lissy, brace up 
and don’t cry. I’m afraid you’ll spot your dress.” 

“ Oh, I will brace up,” moaned Lissy, taking the 
danger to her dress seriously, and poking her head 
out like a turtle so that the tears would fall on the 
porch floor. 

“ Where’s your hanky, kid? ” said Ellis. “ Here, 
wait a jiffy ” he fumbled in his pockets. 

“ I like not to use my — ^my new one that Mees 
Emmy have give me,” she explained, looking at him 
piteously, and holding up her face to be wiped. 
“ I might spot it.” 

Rose had an inspiration. “Excuse me,” she 
said to the others, then drew Lissy aside and talked 
to her in a low tone. To those watching, the child’s 
delicate, changeful face was a revealing picture of 
her mind. Finally she clapped her hands. “ Yes ! 
Yes!” she said, “I will do eet. But first I 

must ” she stood on tiptoe to whisper, and Rose 

bent her head and nodded agreement. 

“ Ex-kee-use-me,” the child murmured, in imita- 
tion of her beloved Miss Rose, and darted into the 
house. 

Five minutes later she returned clad in the mud- 
colored dress which they all so disliked. “ If I am 
to take lemonade and cakes to the small Susan I 
am better so, is it not?” she asked anxiously of 
Archie, who was nearest her. 

291 


THE SHELDON SIX 


“ I should say as much. But perhaps Miss 
Anne won’t let you do that; she won’t let me.” 

“ Lissy may,” answered Ajine, who in the in- 
terval had found out Rose’s plan. “ Two glasses 
and the plate of cookies; can you carry all that, 
Lissy? And be kind to Susan; she isn’t feeling 
very happy.” 

“ I will be good to her,” Lissy promised solemnly, 
and taking the tray, departed with the air of one 
who goes on an errand of mercy. 

“ That’s settled,” said Rose with a sigh of relief. 
“ Susan may not be very keen about Lissy, but she 
can’t resist cakes and lemonade.” She turned, 
meaning to go and talk to Neil, who, up to this 
time, had been monopolized by the boys. She had 
fancied once or twice that he and Ellen were both 
very quiet this afternoon, and seemed in some in- 
describable way different from usual. Before she 
reached Neil’s chair, however. Miss Graham said 
they must go, and there was a confusion of eager 
protests and explanations, in the midst of which 
Rose was seized by Ellen and pushed gently out of 
hearing of the others. 

“ Oh, Rose,” Ellen said breathlessly, “ I’ve just 
got to tell someone that Neil and I are going away 
to-morrow, and we shan’t be back for — ^^vell, for 
some weeks, anyway.” 

Rose stared blankly, and then Ellen’s worried 
292 


NEIL GOES AWAY 


eyes made her guess the meaning of it all. “ Is — 
is it what you told me about? ” she asked. 

“ Yes. Neil means to slip away and let Cousin 
Jean tell you after weVe gone. She isn’t going 
with us, because we are to be at the surgeon’s house. 

She won’t come unless — unless ” Ellen turned 

her head away and stared at the blossoming 
garden. 

“ It would be silly for me to pretend that I don’t 
know what you mean,” Rose answered, and some- 
how her directness helped to steady Ellen. “ But 
I don’t believe for one millionth part of a minute 
that there will be any need for Miss Graham to 
go.” It was a triumph to put such comforting con- 
viction into a half-whisper, and Ellen brightened 
and spoke more calmly. 

“ Of course you don’t know anything about it, 
but I love to have you so firm. I — I’ve been bottled 
up ever since the word came ” — for an instant she 
struggled with herself again — “ I’m glad I told 
you. I’m less likely to spill over before Neil now. 
Don’t tell, will you, until she stopped sud- 

denly, because some of the others were just behind 
them. 

A moment later Rose slipped away, hoping that 
her face did not show that a dreadful secret had been 
entrusted to her keeping, and in her absorption al- 
most walked over Miss Graham. 

293 


THE SHELDON SIX 


“Rose, that dress is fine,” Jean Graham said 
quickly. “ I believe you’ve done more for Lissy 
than you suspect, and I think you are wonderful to 
have put it through so quickly in this warm 
weather.” 

“ Thank you. I — I think so, too,” stammered 
Rose, keeping an eye on Mr. Pearson and Roger, 
who were wheeling Neil off the porch, and wonder- 
ing what it was Miss Graham had said, and whether 
she had answered properly. Then as she saw Neil 
left alone while the others went in search of Hegan, 
she said, “ Oh, please excuse me if I run away. I 
must speak to Neil before he — he goes.” 

What she was going to say to him she did not 
know, but she was certain she couldn’t let him go 
without a word. In her anxious haste she had to 
pull up short to avoid running into the wheel-chair. 
“Hello! I’m on the earth and to be seen by 
passers-by,” Neil said, gTinning up at her in his 
usual friendly fashion, quite as if nothing strange 
and unpleasant were going to happen. 

“ Oh, excuse me. I was coming so fast that ” 

“ You didn’t put on the brakes soon enough. 
I’ve heard that you are the accelerator of the Shel- 
don Six, but I didn’t know you carried it so far as 
to run over your friends.” 

“ That’s Anne’s joke — not mine.” Rose was in- 
clined to treat the idea of the imaginary family car 
294 


NEIL GOES AWAY 

with scorn, but now she would have been glad to 
talk about it. 

“ You’re some dressmaker; that dress of Lissy’s 
is a dandy. I wouldn’t have believed that awful- 
looking child could be almost a beauty.” 

“ She is pretty.” Rose was finding it increas- 
ingly difficult to say anything. 

“ Rose, you’re a bluffer. You talk a lot about 
not having patience and then you surprise us with 
something like this. If you ” — he paused and his 
face was very sober — “ if you came up against any 
big thing I bet you’d go through with it like a 
breeze.” 

“ Oh, I don’t know what I should do,” sighed 
Rose. “ But I feel absolutely sure, Neil ” — Hegan 
was coming, and whatever she had to say must be 
said now — “ I’m as sure as that I stand here that 
you’ll always buck up against — against trouble, and 
come through with ” — she searched desperately for 
the right words — “ with flying colors.” 

“ You know? Ellen told you? ” 

Rose nodded. “ I didn’t mean to give it away, 
but I just had to let you know that I’m betting on 
you ; remember, it’s to be all flags flying.” 

Neil’s face flushed, and his eyes looked happier. 
“ I’m glad Ellen told you,” he hurried to say, and 
then Hegan put his hands on the back of the chair 
and they moved off. 


295 


CHAPTER XVI 


A CAMEL. AND A PINK RABBIT 

This was the sixth day after Neil’s departure, 
and they were talking about him as they sat on the 
front porch after dinner. Archie and Roger had 
just driven over, Anne was in the hammock, Ellis 
on the railing, and Rose had dropped down on the 
steps. 

“ Glory! I just can’t wait to hear whether he’s 
going to be able to walk again like the rest of us,” 
Ellis burst out. “ These telegrams that don’t dare 
to say much of anything get on my nerves.” 

“ There comes Miss Graham now,” said Roger, 
and in spite of the heat Susan and Jim started on 
the run to meet her. “ Perhaps she’ll have some 
real news.” 

“ She’s got something white in her hand,” Connie 
announced, and the next minute Jean Graham 
waved it jubilantly, and they could all see it was a 
letter. 

“ I could scarcely wait to get here,” she said, 
settling herself beside Anne in the hammock, and 
296 


A CAMEL AND A PINK BABBIT 


then with a sigh, “After all, we can’t tell by this 
whether what we most want is going to happen, 
but it’s better than a telegram.” 

Ellen wrote that the surgeons had found the in- 
jury just what they had expected — a fragment of 
bone pressing on the spinal cord and preventing 
motion; that the patient was doing well, and that 
his fine courage would be a help in whatever suc- 
cess might come; that there were reasons to think 
the results might be all they hoped. 

“ But,” added poor Ellen, “ they are all so ter- 
ribly cautious. Not one of them will promise me 
anything. We’ve just got to wait and see. So 
please write, and ask the Sheldons to write, and the 
Bradleys, too. All of you — as often as you can. 
Neil will love the letters, and the days are long.” 

“ Rose and I started off some letters yesterday,” 
said Anne. “ Let’s write every day. Posy, even if 
it’s only a little; it’s so nice to have notes drop- 
ping in.” 

Ellis and Archie looked at each other, and the 
latter said, “ Every day! Great Scott! Isn’t that 
just like a girl? ” 

“We’re up against it. Arch,” Ellis responded 
gloomily. “ What say to going over to Neil’s club- 
ground? Perhaps Pete and some of the others will 
be around, and there’ll be something doing we can 
write about.” 


297 


THE SHELDON SIX 


“ ‘ I'm wid yer,' as Reddy says. We might take 
over the tools and put up that bar." 

“ Right you are," agreed Ellis, and they strolled 
off to the barn together to get the tools. 

“ I’ll send my first letter to-night," Roger said. 
He had begun without waiting to be urged, and was 
writing a serial, illustrated by sketches and snap- 
shots, and to be sent in daily installments. “ I’m 
going to call it ‘ Life on the Sheldon Farm — or a 
Rose Without Thorns.’ ’’ 

“ I don’t see why you pick on me that way,” ob- 
jected Rose, who instantly disapproved of this 
title, and resented having pictures taken at her 
worst moments. ‘‘You make me tired snapping 
me when I least expect it." 

“ You didn’t think I meant you, did you? ” Roger 
laughed. “ You’ve got some thorns of your own, I 
should say. That title just popped into my head ; 
it doesn’t mean anything. Titles often don’t, as far 
as I can see. But you have to get one that — ^that 
tickles the ear.” 

“ Humph! That one doesn’t tickle my ear, and 
I should think some of those snapshots would make 
Neil worse.” 

“ They’re not so bad,” Roger defended, and just 
then he saw Archie and Ellis coming bjr on their 
way to the club. “ Hold on! I guess I’ll go too,” 
he said with a yawn. “ There were some things 
298 


A CAMEL AND A PINK RABBIT 


Ramsay was talking about ” he left his sentence 

unfinished, and stepped over the porch railing to 
join them. 

“ Wait a second,” called Jimsey, “ I’m going to 
take over my bat and ball and teach some of the 
littlest kids.” 

“Let me! Let me!” began Susan, but Ellis 
put up a warning hand. “ That’ll be about all from 
you,” he said soberly. “ No girls allowed this trip.” 
And then, feelingly, to his brother, “ Get a move on, 
youngster. It’s too hot to stand still and wait.” 

Rose agreed with him silently. She had spent 
the morning in the garden, and now, in this hottest 
part of a warm day, felt like nothing so much as 
sitting just where she was on the steps, with her 
head against a pillar and her eyelids deliciously 
droopy. Not that she was comfortable — far from 
it. The steps were hard, and on the fluted pillar 
were sharp edges that poked into her head; but if 
she moved a sixteenth of an inch she might lose 
this delightful drowsiness. 

“Miss Jean and I are going up-stairs. Rose; 
don’t you want to come? ” Anne invited. 

“ No, thanks,” murmured Rose without stirring, 
and forebore to quote the ancient remark about 
three and a crowd, though it occurred to her as ap- 
propriate. She wondered if she could get into the 
hammock which the others were just leaving with- 
299 


THE SHELDON SIX 

out waking herself entirely. It might be worth 
trying. 

“ Why don’t you take the hammock. Rose? ” 
suggested Jean Graham. “ You look sleepy.” 

“ No, thanks,” answered Rose again in the same 
indifferent tone, deciding immediately that all she, 
wanted was to keep perfectly still. After a while, 
however, as the pillar continued to dig into the back 
of her head, and no one was there to see, she got up 
and bestowed herself comfortably in the hammock. 

“ You’re so contrary that if you were a girl I 
knew, or one in a story, I’d think you were a silly 
‘ it,’ ” she told herself with sleepy scorn. “ I — do 
think so — anyway ” and then, for a drowsy mo- 

ment, she was aware of a perfumed breeze, and of 
a soft, droning murmur in the honeysuckle near 
her; after that stillness enfolded her world. 

Later Lissy arrived, found Rose and gazed at 
her adoringly without making a sound. Then she 
went into the garden, where Susan, somewhat 
lonely this afternoon, welcomed her with unwonted 
enthusiasm. 

From deep slumber Rose was suddenly precipi- 
tated into a dream in which wild beasts snarled and 
cried out in voices strangely human, and she came 
to herself in a hurry because the hammock was 
pulled and shaken almost to the point of turning 
her out. 


300 


A CAMEL AND A PINK RABBIT 


“ For goodness’ sake, what’s happening to me? ” 
she demanded, sitting up and blinking at an en- 
raged Susan, and at Lissy, who looked more fright- 
ened than angry. 

“ When I wanted her to keep still — not to wake 
you — she have shook the — the bed like this.” Lissy 
illustrated with such force that Rose came fully 
awake now and clutched at the hammock. 

“ She — she’s got my camel,” retorted Susan, 
scowling at Lissy. “And I saw her hide Jimsey’s 
paint-box so she could take it home with her.” 

“ I have not ” began Lissy, and could not go 

farther with Rose’s eyes upon her. “ I have put 
the color-box of Jeem where the small Susan could 
not touch it,” she went on in her most appealing 
manner. “ Jeem, he lets me use it, because I am 
careful. He cannot bear the — the so great sploshi- 
ness of — of children.” 

“ I’m not a child,” snapped Susan. “And you 
were going to take it away — you do take things — 
and you’ve got my camel.” Her face was flushed, 
and she turned on Lissy with the apparent purpose 
of doing her bodily injury. Susan was so big for 
her age and Lissy so small for hers that Rose felt 
it wise to stand between them. 

“ Don’t slap and kick,” she said curtly to Susan. 
“Animals scratch and bite, because they don’t know 
any better, but you’re a girl.” 

301 


THE SHELDON SIX 


Lissy gave her a worshipful glance and spoke 
firmly. “ I also am a girl, and I will no more fight 
weeth my hands and — and my tooths if you say so.” 

“ If I say so ! Of course I do. And now where’s 
the camel? ” 

The sudden question was unexpected, and Lissy 
turned pale. Her mouth opened, but no words 
came, and she could only stare helplessly. 

“ Where is it? ” Rose persisted. “ You took it, 
didn’t you? ” 

‘‘ Ye-es. I took heem, but not for to keep.” 
The child fumbled with both hands at the buttons 
on the back of her dress, and presently drew from 
its temporary hiding-place a small bronze camel 
which someone had given Susan. She passed a 
slim finger over the animal’s queer back, and ap- 
parently quite forgetting her sins, murmured ab- 
sently, “ Beautifool — ^he is beautifool.” 

“ Ho ! His back is all crooked. How can he be 
beautiful? ” In her anxiety to disagree, Susan 
forgot that, for the moment, this was one of her 
most cherished possessions, and that Lissy had done 
her a grievous wrong. 

“ I do not mean that he is good to look at.” 
Lissy was struggling to express herself, and again 
she traced the contour of the animal with her finger. 
‘‘ Look ! ” she said at last, and she set the bronze 
camel on the porch railing and stood away to gaze 
302 


A CAMEL AND A PINK BABBIT 


at it. “ It is because this little theeng is made so 
beautifool that I like it. Jeem have telled me that 
this animal is called the ‘ sheep of the desert ’ ; he 
showed me pictures of many camels. The person 
who have made this small theeng knew much. I 
think he smells water, this one, after being veree 
thirsty.” 

In spite of lack of exercise, Rose’s imagination 
responded to Lissy’s words. Staring at the little 
figure on the railing, her vision broadened to take 
in the sand-swept desert with a line of burdened 
camels disappearing in the distance. Then her eyes 
focussed on the bronze camel again. It really was 
well made, she supposed, but it was queer that a 
child like Lissy should be so impressed by that part 
of it. 

“Well, all the same, it isn’t yours,” she said 
flatly, once more solidly on earth again, “and you’ve 
no right to take it unless Susan says you may.” 

“ No, indeedy,” added Susan, and there was that 
in her manner which asserted that it would be a 
long day before she should give any such permis- 
sion. 

A shadow fell over Lissy’s illumined face. “ I 
promeese,” she said sorrowfully, “ that I will 
take no things that are to the small Susan any 
more.” 

Nor to the small Jim, either,” amended Susan 

303 


THE SHELDON SIX 


hastily. If she must be called by that hated name 
Jimsey should share it. 

“ I will get the color-box/’ Lissy said meekly, her 
dark eyes searching Rose’s face. “ I will not touch 
heem again — ^until Jeem shall say so. But Jeem, 
he is deeferent; he love, like me, to draw, to make 

the painting, to ” she stopped, startled, as if 

she had been going to say something she should pre- 
fer not to say. “ Shall I bring the color-box to you 
or put heem away? ” 

“ We’ll take care of that later. Now I want to 
talk to you.” 

Lissy’s face was sober and somewhat apprehen- 
sive. Even Susan squirmed uneasily, and thought 
her sister’s voice sounded very stern. 

“ Lissy, you know the handkerchief Miss Erne- 
line gave you to go with your new dress? ” 

“ Yes, I know heem.” Lissy’s answer was 
scarcely more than a frightened whisper. As if 
she held it in her hand she could see this cherished 
treasure with its pretty pink border; she wondered 
if Mees Rose might be going to say that she must 
give it back again. 

“ What should you think, Lissy, if some girl over 
in Mill Hollow liked that handkerchief very much 
and should take it away from you? ” 

“ Theenk! ” exploded Lissy, in a voice quite dif- 
ferent from her sighing whisper, “ I should not stop 
304 


A CAMEL AND A PINK RABBIT 


to theenk; she would be a robber — I should beat 
her.” And then more quietly, “ The handkerchief 
is mine ; eet was give to me.” 

“And the camel is Susan’s; it was given to her. 
Do you want her to call you a robber and beat 
you? ” 

“ If the small Susan did that and was not the 

sister of you ” Lissy began with grim warning 

in her glance, and then she looked startled. “ It 
ees not the exact same, is eet?” she asked with a 
perplexed frown, “ the girl who take my handker- 
chief, and that I — I borrow the camel of Susan? ” 

“ When we borrow things we first ask for them, 
and when we’ve used them we give them back,” said 
Rose. “ Or, if we don’t, we ought to,” she hastened 
to add. 

“ Yes, but I have wanted to make a picture of 
this camel, and if I ask Susan she would not let me 
to borrow eet.” 

“ That doesn’t make any difference.” Rose 
was getting a bit tired of this prolonged argument 
and she spoke decidedly. “ If there’s anything you 
need that we don’t give you, you must find out 
whose it is and ask if you may have it. Never take 
anything that isn’t yours and hide it away; that’s 
sneaky.” 

“ I do not like to be snikky.” Lissy was im- 
pressed by the scorn in her idol’s voice, and in mute 

305 


THE SHELDON SIX 


dejection she put the little camel in Susan’s hands. 
Then she became thoughtful. “ Does everytheeng 
in this house belong to somebody?” she asked. 
“ The tables and chairs, the butter and bread, the — 
the theengs in the room where the beeg water is? ” 
A faint color stole into her face as if this last held 
the importance of the question. 

“ Why, of course. All of those things belong 
either to Miss Anne or to my father. And it isn’t 
just this house that you must remember about. 
It’s wherever you may be and for all your life; 
don’t take what doesn’t belong to you. Do you 
understand? ” Rose hammered in the moral lesson 
with a decision that made both her hearers blink. 

“ I theenk I do; you mean that in the whole 
world I am not to take what isn’t mine — not to be 
snikky.” 

“ That’s it exactly. And now I’m going into 
the house. Susan, can you and Lissy be friendly 
and play together? ” 

“ I s’pose so,” drawled Susan, looking askance 
at her late enemy. She was somewhat puzzled as 
to how the whole affair had come out. To be sure 
she had got back her camel, but he was a hard, un- 
satisfactory animal that absolutely refused to be 
cuddled; neither did it give her any of the joy she 
had seen in Lissy ’s face to put him on the porch 
railing and stare at him. Anyway, Lissy looked 
306 


A CAMEL AND A PINK RABBIT 


as if she had been punished, so perhaps she would 
be easier to play with now. “ Well, come on,” she 
said ungraciously. And then, with mounting en- 
thusiasm, “ Let’s get some skirts and play lady.” 

“ I’ll find some you can use,” Rose hastened 
to add, and with the trouble apparently healed, they 
all went into the house together. 

Later in the afternoon, when a breath of cool- 
ness was stealing into the air, Archie and Ellis came 
speeding back to the house in the automobile and 
found the family assembled on the east porch. 

“ We-all want you-all to come to supper at our 
house,” Archie said at once. ‘‘ We’ve got to have 
a party, because Uncle has sent up a box of stuff 
by special delivery, and most of it is perishable. 
He must have got the idea that we’re starving.” 

“ There won’t be any left to perish if you put 
the Sheldons on the job,” encouraged Ellis. “ Only 
lead us to it.” 

“ Will you come. Miss Graham? And Mr. 
Sheldon? And Anne and Rose and Connie?” 
Archie continued. “ Would you ” 

“ I’m a Sheldon Six, too,” interrupted Susan, 
coming up behind him with a great swishing of her 
train. ‘‘ Wouldn’t you care to have me come? ” 

“ Sure, Honey. We couldn’t get along without 
you. And where’s Lissy ? Perhaps she could gain 
a few ounces if she tried.” 

307 


THE SHELDON SIX 


She’s out in the garden sitting down. She 
won’t play any more. She’s got a gwouch, I guess.” 
Having settled the matter of her own invitation, 
Susan swept along the porch, gazing over her shoul- 
der at her train. 

“ I’ll find her,” promised Rose, serene in the 
agreeable consciousness that she could manage 
Lissy. “ What was it you were going to ask when 
Susan interrupted? ” 

Archie chuckled. “ Something cheeky,” he ad- 
mitted. “ Would you mind letting me take a plate 
and knife and fork and spoon for each one of you? ” 

“ Of course not,” Anne answered. “ Let us 
bring something else, won’t you? ” 

“ That’s all we need, thank you. Ellis and I 
have got to dash ’round a bit with the car and do 
some shopping, and then I’ll come back for you-all 
about five-thirty. How’s that? ” 

It being agreed that this would suit all con- 
cerned, Anne went to get the supplies, and after 
the boys had gone. Rose started for the garden in 
search of Lissy. 

She found her seated in melancholy fashion on 
the ground, with her knees drawn up and her head 
resting upon them. As Rose approached the child 
looked up at her, but said nothing — just waited in 
all patience for whatever might happen. 

“ Why, Lissy, what’s the matter? Have you and 
308 


A CAMEL AND A PINK RABBIT 


Susan been scrapping again? ” Rose began lightly, 
and then, realizing that whatever the trouble might 
be, it was no small thing to Lissy, she became sym- 
pathetic at once. “ Don't you feel well? Did you 
and Susan quarrel? ” 

“ No, the small Susan have been good,” Lissy 
answered dully. “ I theenk I shall go home — there 

is a feeling of badness here ” she put her hand 

on her chest vaguely, as if not quite sure of the 
location of the unpleasantness, and raised tear- 
filled eyes to Rose. 

“ I wonder what you had for dinner,” that prac- 
tical young person murmured. “ Have you and 
Susan been eating anything? Come into the house 
and we’ll ask EfRe about it.” 

‘‘No! No! I do not weesh to see her.” Lissy 
got up and looked about her nervously. “ It is not 
a seeckness for Effie to take care of. I will go 
home — I cannot stay here. I ask you not to try 
to keep me.” 

She had so much the air of a small frightened ani- 
mal trying to escape that Rose was both sorry for 
her and puzzled. “ Of course I won’t try to stop 
you if you really want to go,” she said gently. 
“ But, Lissy, I came out to tell you that Mr. Archie 
wants us all to come to his house for supper, and 
he has invited you, too. Wouldn’t you like to do 
that? ” 


309 


THE SHELDON SIX 


The child’s face brightened in response to this 
alluring invitation; then her eyes filled with tears 
again. “ I cannot,” she said brokenly. “ I must 
go home.” It was evident that she wanted to weep 
whole-heartedly, but Rose’s restrictions in regard 
to crying had been impressive, and Lissy managed 
to keep the tears from falling. 

“ All right, then,” answered Rose. “ Go you 
shall, if you want to as much as that. Would you 
rather walk? If you will wait an hour you can go 
over in the automobile with us.” 

“ I will walk,” Lissy decided instantly, and would 
have started immediately, but Rose held her back. 

“ Listen,” she said impressively, “ I am sure that 
very soon you will feel better and you will want to 
come to Mr. Archie’s house. If you do ask Mrs. 
Rand to let you go, and tell her I said we would 
take you home with us for over night. You may 
sleep on the cot in the little sewing-room, and you 
know you like that.” 

“ Yes. I know I like that,” Lissy repeated, with 
no animation in her voice. “ If I feel better per- 
haps I come.” She took a step away from Rose 
and then turned to her again. “ You do like me a 
little, is it not? ” she said appealingly. “ You do 
not think I am bad — snikky? ” 

“ Why, of course I like you. I’m getting to be 
very fond of you.” Rose patted her shoulder, and 
310 


A CAMEL AND A PINK BABBIT 


then, to her own surprise, stooped to kiss the trou- 
bled face. As she stood up again she found her- 
self hoping that Susan didn’t see that. 

“ I feel a small bit better already,” Lissy declared 
with a wavering smile. “ Now I go.” 

Rose watched her across the garden and out into 
the road. “ Now, what do you know about that? ” 
she asked herself, as she went slowly back to the 
house. “ I wonder if I ought to have dragged out 
of her what the matter is.” She supposed Lissy 
was bound to have some feelings she would want 
to keep to herself; everyone ought to have that 
privilege. The wistful face haunted her and took 
away her pleasure. 

Mr. Pearson and the boys had worked hard that 
afternoon to make the supper party worthy of the 
hamper Mr. Bradley had sent, and when their 
guests arrived they were modestly ready to be ad- 
mired for their success. 

They had chosen the pine grove back of the house 
for a dining-room, and here, on the soft carpet of 
pine-needles, they had established a table made of 
boards supported by barrels. What they lacked in 
chairs they made up in boxes topped with Archie’s 
cushions. The table was covered with creamy cot- 
ton cloth, and adorned with tiny flags which seemed 
to grow from mounds of greenest moss, set at in- 
tervals along the table. Near each end was a jar 

311 


THE SHELDON SIX 


of red lilies and feathery green, and in the centre 
a large bowl heaped with plums, grapes, bananas, 
rosy apples, peaches and pears; a wonder of lovely 
color. 

“ I didn’t have much time to think up any scheme, 
but I wasn’t going to let you girls think we didn’t 
know enough to have decorations,” Roger said, when 
Mr. Pearson proclaimed him the artist. “ Those 
little flags were all we could find in the store, and 
we thought we could give ’em to the kids after- 
wards.” 

“ Uncle must have had a grand time buying the 
things,” Archie chuckled, “ and he had to send ’em 
by special delivery parcel post, because he had 
bought rolls and cakes and individual chicken pies, 
and ” 

“ Hold up ! You’re giving away the bill of fare,” 
Mr. Pearson complained. ‘‘ Where’s your Lissy, 
Miss Rose? I had a little French flag and I stuck 
it in among the others for her.” 

“ She went home over an hour ago,” Rose ex- 
plained. “ I tried to persuade her to come here, 
but I couldn’t.” 

“ That’s too bad; I like Lissy,” Archie said re- 
gretfully. “ Well, let’s get busy, as Uncle would 
say. We’ve all got to eat a lot to make up for his 
reckless extravagance.” 

“ Somehow ‘ Uncle’s extravagance ’ doesn’t seem 
312 


A CAMEL AND A PINK BABBIT 


as reckless as it did,” Miss Graham said, when the 
eleven hearty appetites had been at work for a 
while. “ I’m so glad you asked me to come to this 
party.” 

“I do wish Ellen and Neil were here; Ellen 
would love these delectable chicken pies,” declared 
Rose. “ Parties don’t seem the same since they 
went away.” 

“ I guess we all wish that,” Connie added. 

“ Right you are.” Ellis was emphatic in voice 
and manner. “ Neil has made a hundred per cent, 

difference in this summer for me. Why, I ” 

he stopped, looking a little guilty, as if he had 
been about to disclose some of his inmost feel- 
ings. 

For a moment they were all silent, and their 
thoughts were with the boy, who in his own trouble 
had found his greatest comfort in helping others. 

“ I wish that was a wireless and would really 
reach him in some way,” murmured Anne, breaking 
the stillness. “ I was thinking so hard about his 
getting well.” 

“ They haven’t yet proved that it can’t get 
through to him. We can hold on to that much,” 
said Mr. Pearson. 

Susan, not given to conversation while she was 
eating, had finished the first part of the supper be- 
fore the others did, and was now gazing with long- 

313 


THE SHELDON SIX 


ing eyes at a plate of wonderful little cakes which 
happened to be near her, “Are we going to have 
ice-cweam? ” she demanded in a clear voice. “ Do I 
have to wait for that ’fore I can have a cake? ” 

“ Why, Susan,” remonstrated her father. “ You 
overwhelm me with shame. Are these your com- 
pany manners? ” 

“ Daddy, don’t you mind a bit ’bout me,” Susan 
comforted, tiying to stretch across the table to pat 
her father, and being forcibl}?^ pulled back by Anne, 
who sat on one side of her. 

“ Jimsey Sheldon, don’t you look at me that 
way,” she protested, glaring at her brother. “ I 
guess I know how to behave as well as you do. 
And I don’t need to have my comp’ny manners 
here, ’cause this is mostly just the fambly.” She 
turned to Miss Graham, who sat on the other side 
of her, and leaned lovingly toward her. “ You’re 
’most a Sheldon Sixer, aren’t you, darling dear? ” 
she murmured in honeyed tones. “ I’ll ’dopt you 
the way Rose has Lissy.” 

“ Thanks, Sweetness. I’ll consider myself 
’dopted, then,” responded Jean Graham, laying her 
cheek for an instant against the rosy one bending 
to hers. 

“ Speaking of Lissy and ice-cream,” remarked 
Mr. Pearson, “ I’m sorry that they’re not both here. 
We tried to get those nice girls who have the tea- 

314 


A CAMEL AND A PINK RABBIT 


room to make some ice-cream for us, but it was out 
of the question,” 

“ They’re working like troopers to keep up with 
their customers,” Archie said, getting up as he spoke 
to light the paper lanterns which had been strmig 
from tree to tree across the table. Outside it was 
still fairly light, but in the tree-shaded grove the 
August dusk came early. “ The little one I talked 
with looked awfully pale and tired to-day.” 

It was soon after the lanterns had been lighted 
that, without any warning, a familiar voice said 
suddenly from outside the tree-enclosure, “Oh, 
Mees Rose! Until the lights I have thought I 
should never find you.” 

“ Lissy!” exclaimed Rose with real gladness in 
her face. It had worried her to remember the 
child’s unhappiness. The next moment Lissy fol- 
lowed her voice into the grove and stood still, 
dazzled. Her face was pale, but no longer troubled 
as Rose had last seen it. In her hand she clutched 
tightly a paper bag. 

Her eyes searched until she found Mr. Sheldon, 
and then, with a deep sigh of relief, she went 
straight to him. “ I do not know eef what I have 
done is to you or Mees Anne,” she said clearly. 
“ I have taken theengs that are not to me — I have 
been snikky.” 

She paused and looked at him with such distress 

315 


THE SHELDON SIX 


in her dark eyes that Mr. Sheldon patted her con- 
solingly, though he hadn’t the faintest idea what she 
was talking about. 

Then she opened the bag, plunged her hand to 
the bottom and brought forth a small white object, 
which she placed in front of Mr. Sheldon on the 
table. Again the hand went in, and a gTeenish ob- 
ject joined the white one. The third time some- 
thing faintly pink appeared. 

“ I could not bring eet back as it was,” she ex- 
plained, and her manner was that of one who had 
shed a gTeat burden. “ This ees the best I can do, 
and always after I shall ask if I may take. I shall 
not be snikky.” With which final declaration she 
rested her hands on her hips and gazed anxiously 
at Mr. Sheldon. 

He, frankly puzzled, looked at her instead of at 
the objects she had placed before him, smiled en- 
couragingly and said, “ Tell me all about it again, 
Lissy.” 

“ But I have already tolled you,” she began in 
dismay, but Rose, who had slipped around the table 
and picked up the small pink thing, interrupted 
her. 

“Why, Daddy, look!” she exclaimed, and then 
lifted the object to her nose and sniffed at it. 
“ Daddy, it’s a rabbit made out of soap.” 

“Soap!” said Anne and Connie at the same 
316 


A CAMEL AND A PINK RABBIT 

moment, looking at each other with deep mean- 
ing. 

“ Here’s a green eat! ” cried Susan who had fol- 
lowed in her sister’s wake. 

Mr. Sheldon held the third small object in the 
light of the nearest lantern. “ It’s a white dog. 
Why, there’s real action in this. He looks as if he 
were howling,” he said with enthusiasm. 

“ Yes, he howls.” Lissy was delighted at this 
appreciation. “ He is a little dog and he is lost 
and — and homeseeck.” She was standing, flushed 
and expectant, her eyes looking from one to an- 
other glowingly, as the animals were passed from 
hand to hand. 

“ I cannot bring back all the soap I have took,” 
she said with a sigh. “ Some of the animals I make 
I have give away yesterday to the small Josef who 
have broke his arm.” 

“ Father,” said Anne, into whose hands the pink 
rabbit had just now been consigned, “ why, Father, 
I think someone is a g-e-n-i-u-s, don’t you? ” 

“ Tell me! Tell we what someone is,” demanded 
Susan, to whom spelled words were an abomination 
not to be permitted in her family. “ I think so 
too if Daddy does.” 

“Did you make these, Lissy?” Mr. Sheldon 
asked. “All by yourself? ” 

“ Yes. Some day I will show you. You have 
317 


THE SHELDON SIX 


not mind — you have pardoned that I take the soap 
without permission? ” 

“ I should say we don’t mind. That is ” Mr. 

Sheldon noticed that Rose was shaking her head 
warningly, and he guessed that he might be under- 
mining her teaching. “ That is to say, Lissy, we 
think it is always right to ask for things before 
taking them. And we’re sure that after this you’re 
going to do that.” 

“ Yes,” agreed Lissy with a sorrowful shake of 
her head. 

“ I think the kid should have some clay; she’s 
done so well with these.” Ellis beamed on her and 
patted her shoulder. “ It’s up to your Mees Rose, 
Lissy, to get some for you.” 

“ But I haven’t an idea where to find it.” 

“Ask Miss Eunice,” suggested Mr. Pearson. 
“ She knows everything.” 

“ I shall write Uncle about this,” Archie said 
with decision. “ He loves to get hold of something 
of this kind.” 

Jean Graham was holding one after the other of 
the little animals in the light and studying each one 
critically. “ These are crude, of course, but there 
is real life in them, and, as you said, Mr. Sheldon, 
action. I believe this is a talent that should be cul- 
tivated.” 

“ I move that we all help to do it,” proposed 
318 


A CAMEL AND A PINK RABBIT 


Roger, and began hastily pouring lemonade into the 
empty glasses. “ Let’s drink to the success of the 
sculptor.” 

In the momentary silence that followed the drink- 
ing of the toast, Susan, who had not bothered her- 
self about any such nonsense as this, spoke out 
clearly. “ Lissy, you remember my beautiful 
camel,” she said, and smiled her sweetest; “ de-ah 
Lissy, you may borrow him to look at if you will 
give me this cuddley pink wabbit.” 


319 


CHAPTER XVII 


GOOD NEWS 

During the next three weeks the thought of Neil 
crept into every hour of the day for some of them, 
and unexpected remarks — things decided and done 
the way he would be likely to choose — sudden 
silences when they were all together — showed that 
anxiety as to his recovery was in the heart of every- 
one. 

Sometimes it seemed to Rose that she had never 
really begun to think about anything serious until 
this summer, and she wondered if it were because 
she was growing older, and was sure that she pre- 
ferred to stay young. Two questions were con- 
tinually coming to the surface in her mind: would 
Neil get well — and if he didn’t, if he never could 
walk again, how could he bear it? Day after day 
she went over them, and in spite of her difficulty in 
believing that anyone could have the courage to 
face such a fate, her mind always worked out to the 
same conclusion — a confident expectation that Neil 
would be brave whatever happened. 

320 


GOOD NEWS 

And then one hot afternoon, news came about the 
boy who had been in their thoughts so constantly. 

It was shortly after dinner, and all the Sheldons, 
except Jim, who had been sent by his father to the 
hotel with a note to Miss Graham, were in Rose’s 
sight as she sat on the porch railing. Afterwards 
it seemed queer to her that she could always re- 
member exactly where each one was sitting: Anne 
and Daddy were in the hammock, talking; Connie 
was near them in one of the porch chairs, struggling 
with a new kind of crochet work; Archie and Roger, 
who had come over to see what was on for the after- 
noon, were with Ellis on the lawn, and Susan was 
tickling them with spears of feathery grass, and 
gurgling with laughter over their attempts to get 
hold of her. 

Nobody noticed Jimsey until he dashed across 
the lawn and gave a yellow envelope to his father. 
At once Mr. Sheldon glanced at the telegram, and 
then stood up and read it like a proclamation. 

“ ‘ Splendid news Neil can move everything 
apparently successful letter follows.’ ” 

At the words Ellis uttered a loud hurrah, and 
seized Archie in a close embrace which terminated 
in a mighty wrestle, while Roger rushed over to Mr. 
Sheldon and began shaking hands with him as if 
they had not met for years. 

321 


THE SHELDON SIX 


“ Oh, the grass is greener and the sky is bluer and 
the sun is — is sunnier,” chanted Anne, scarcely real- 
izing that her own eyes were full of tears until Con- 
nie, looking at her, became tearful in sympathy. 

“ It isn’t very sensible to cry about it,” snapped 
Rose, whose emotions were raging, but were not 
allowed the relief of tears. 

‘‘ I guess that was the reason Miss Jean didn’t 
come over — because she was afraid she should cry,” 
said Jim. “Anjavay she had tears in her eyes, but 
she whisked ’em away. She thinks this means that 
Neil will be back here in two or three weeks.” 

“Goody! Goody! Pr-robably he’ll br-bring 
me a pr-r-resent,” trilled Susan, who felt con- 
scientious to-day about her difficult letter. 

“You little grasping thing, is that all you care 
about your friends? ” scolded Archie, swinging her 
into the air to the accomi)animent of her delighted 
laughter. “ I bet you a nickel they don’t think 
anything about a pr-r-resent for you.” 

“ I should say as much,” said Anne. “ I’m 
going into the house this minute and write to 
Ellen.” 

“ ’Bout my pwesent? ” ventured the undaunted 
Susan. 

“ Say, Archie, we’ve got to get busy if Neil’s 
coming back in two weeks.” Ellis took Archie’s 
arm and propelled him across the lawn out of hear- 
322 


GOOD NEWS 

ing. Connie and her father walked off together^ 
and presently Susan and Jimsey departed also. 

Rose had sat down on the steps now, and with 
her chin in her hands was dreamily surveying the 
distant landscape through half-closed eyes. A 
slight sound made her turn, and she found Roger 
sitting beside her in precisely the same attitude. 

“ Copy-cat,” she said briefly. “ I didn’t know 
you were there.” 

“ I am,” he gave cheerful assurance. “ I don’t 
know about you,” he went on, “ but I feel as if I’d 
been walking on a very high, narrow place, holding 
my breath, and had suddenly — come to the end of 
it.” 

Rose nodded understandingly. “ I feel like that, 
too. Or as if I were something elastic that had 
been stretched and stretched — and then let go.” 

“ What do you think we’d better do about it? ” 
Roger asked with a grin. I’m no good for any 
work this afternoon.” 

“ Same here. 1 loathe the idea of work — par- 
ticularly doing kind acts.” 

Roger laughed. ‘‘ I bet it wouldn’t be safe for a 
kind act — needing to be done — ^to walk right under 
your nose,” he said. “ But I know what you mean. 
Let’s think up something. Why not get the 
crowd together and go off somewhere for supper? ” 

‘‘ We did that night before last,” Rose objected. 

323 


THE SHELDON SIX 

“ Besides it’s a lot of work and I’m too lazy to lift a 
finger. You think about it while I change my 
dress. You might round up the others and see 
what they’d like to do.” 

An hour later, just as Roger was beginning to 
think she was never coming, Rose appeared in a 
white embroidered organdy, with her beautiful hair 
piled high on her head and pulled low over her ears, 
and a large white hat in her hand. 

“ Gee whiz ! I don’t look classy enough to go 
out with that,” gasped Roger, gazing at her with 
an expression in which admiration and disapproval 
were blended. “ Arch and I have always thought 
you and Anne had sense — oh, well, of course I 
know you’ve got ears, and, anyway, those are not 
just bunches pinned on.” 

“ How do you know they’re not? I just had to 
put my hair up. It’s hotter than mustard to have 
a great braid dangling in your neck.” 

“ Sure it is. I find mine Heavy.” Roger wig- 
gled his cropped head with a ridiculous air. “ Ear- 
laps are lovely and cool, though, aren’t they? ” 

“ You silly thing! ” Rose refused to encourage 
him by laughing. “ What luck did you have find- 
ing the others? ” 

“ Not much. Your father is writing now, and 
he said he had planned to look over some manu- 
script with Miss Graham later. Archie and Ellis 
324 


GOOD NEWS 


have disappeared, and, by George, they’ve taken 
the car, too. Miss Graham has come ovei*, and she 

and Anne are absorbed ” 

“ If they’re together Anne won’t want to do any- 
thing else,” Rose interrupted. “ She always seems 
hurt when I try to break in on one of their heart-to- 
hearters.” 

“ She wasn’t this time. She said if I could find 
the boys she’d do anything the rest wanted to do.” 

“ Isn’t that just like Nan? I do wish she’d 
stick up for her own way once in a while,” Rose 
muttered, and then laughed at sight of Roger’s 
astonished face. “ I suppose you think I’m hard 
to suit,” she went on quicldy, “ about Anne, I mean. 
Well, anyway, I’m glad you didn’t find the boys. 

It would have spoiled my party to have Miss ” 

“ Don’t you like her? ” queried Roger in con- 
sternation. “ Why, Mr. Pearson and Archie and 
I think ” 

‘‘ ‘ She’s a corker,’ ” supplied Rose. 

“ How did you know I was going to say that? ” 
“ Because I’ve heard it so many times, goosey. 
I like her, too — that is, I don’t dislike — oh, let’s not 
talk about it. I want to do something I’ve never 
done before and — and I don’t mind having you 
with me. Now what shall we do? ” 

“ Thank you for letting me live. And you’re 
not asking anything, are you? ” 

325 


THE SHELDON SIX 


“ You said once I had a few thorns,” Rose an- 
swered coolly; and then, with sudden clear vision, 
“ I’m prickly because I’m tired of doing just what 
everyone expects me to do. And I’m a fright in 
this dress because my face and arms are so brown 
and my hands don’t look nice after the garden work. 
If I had some stylish clothes I’d go and call on that 
girl at the hotel — the one that Archie introduced 
me to the other day.” 

‘‘ Well, why don’t you? She’s an all-round nice 
girl, and she wouldn’t mind what you had on.” 
Roger felt that this solution would relieve him of 
what threatened to be a perplexing problem. 

“ Don’t you believe it. She was absolutely cor- 
rect the day I saw her. I knew it, and she knew 
it, and she knew I knew it, too.” 

“ ‘And she saw I saw Esaw,’ ” murmured Roger 
abstractedly. “ You can’t prove anything by me. 
I think she looked all right and I know you always 
do.” 

There was a finality about his opinion which, on 
another day, might have cheered Rose, but now she 
only shook her head. “ Boys don’t know about 
those things, any^vay,” she said stubbornly. 

“ Maybe not,” Roger responded, and then with 
sudden inspiration, “ Why don’t we go over to the 
tea-house? It isn’t more than three-quarters of a 
mile, and I can treat because Uncle sent me a pres- 
326 


GOOB NEWS 


ent the other day. Come on, let’s go. Then 
we can tease the others about what they’ve 
missed.” 

Rose hesitated. She knew Daddy wouldn’t ob- 
ject and she hated to disturb him when he was 
writing. Nevertheless it was an inflexible family 
rule that one shouldn’t go away without telling 
where she meant to go, and Rose preferred to in- 
terrupt her father rather than to explain to Anne 
and Miss Graham. 

“ Wait a minute,” she said. ‘‘ I must speak to 
Daddy.” 

Her father looked up from his writing and pre- 
tended to shade his eyes from so radiant a vision. 
“ Isn’t that a new dress, dear? I don’t remember 
seeing that before.” 

“ It was new once. It came in one of the hand- 
me-down boxes from Connie’s godmother. To tell 
the truth, I feel absurdly dressed up and I wish I 
had on a gingham.” Rose smiled at her father with 
engaging frankness. “ I came to tell you that 
Roger wants me to go over to the tea-house; do you 
mind? ” 

“ Why, no. Have the others all deserted you? ” 
Mr. Sheldon’s hand absently scribbled a word as he 
talked. 

“ Roger and I feel like frivoling,” Rose an- 
swered; and then, looking at him with curiosity, 

327 


THE SHELDON SIX 

“ Daddy, do you really like writing all this — this 
stuff? ” 

“You graceless child! I might call it stuff, 
but you ought not to dare to. Why, doing this has 
been the dream of my life, but until Miss Graham 
prodded me into it, I thought it would never be 
more than a dream. She has a great way of mak- 
ing one feel that he can do more than he thought he 
could.” Mr. Sheldon looked off over the garden, 
and smiled as if he were remembering something 
pleasant. 

“ Well, I’m glad you like it,” his daughter said 
with a sigh. “ Catch me filling pages and pages 
with just words. Good-bye, Daddy.” She stooped 
to kiss him, and added, “ Good luck to the writing.” 

“ Is it all right? ” Roger asked impatiently. 
“ Say, isn’t it going to spoil those white shoes of 
yours to walk over there? They look tight, too. 
Why don’t you change ’em before we start? ” 

“ Because these are my only white ones. They 
look tight, because I’ve been wearing such loose old 
ones.” For the last ten minutes Rose had been 
trying to persuade herself that the shoes would 
stretch as she walked. “ Let’s go now before any- 
thing stops us. And please don’t make any more 
remarks about my hair and my shoes.” 

She was so unusually mild that Roger looked at 
her in surprise. Rose in her customary good 
328 


GOOD NEWS 


spirits was fair game for teasing, but when she 
seemed so — so gentle as she did now all the rules of 
good sportsmanship forbade it. “ Come on; let’s 
not waste any more time,” he responded. “Any- 
way, it’s all by the road, so you won’t hurt your 
dress or your shoes.” 

Their way led to the left and round a corner, and 
presently they came to Miss Eunice’s house, with 
that lady and Miss Emeline sitting on a shady 
porch. 

“ You’ve heard the wonderful news about Neil, 
of course,” called Miss Eunice, as Rose, with a 
warm feeling of comradeship, stopped to talk for 
a moment. 

“ Oh, yes. Isn’t it fine? We’re all so happy 
over it.” 

“ To-day you’re a white Rose,” observed little 
Miss Emmy, gazing admiringly at the pretty dress. 

“ Did you ever think that you never wanted to 
do another bit of work, and that you’d simply got 
to put on the prettiest dress you owned and do 
something you never did before? ” asked Rose. 

“ Not more than a thousand times,” responded 
Miss Emeline with dancing eyes. 

Miss Eunice smiled in understanding sympathy 
and asked, “ Are you going to do something really 
wonderful? If you are I’d like to go with you; 
I’m tired of everydayness.” 

329 


THE SHELDON SIX 


“Goodness! Do grown-ups feel that way? 
Perhaps everydayness is partly the matter with 
me/’ Rose said as if she were thinking out the 
question. 

“ We’re only going over to the little tea-house 
to have ice-cream. Won’t you both come, too? ” 
Roger invited in his best manner. 

“ Thank you, we’d like to,” both ladies said at 
once, and then Miss Emeline finished, “ but we’re 
expecting company this afternoon and we can’t 
leave the house.” 

“ I’m glad you’re going,” Miss Eunice said. 
“ Those are nice girls at the tea-house and they 
need the money they’re working so hard for. The 
older girl is in college, and the other one is about 
your age, I should think.” She was looking at 
Rose and she ended thoughtfully, “ Only she 
doesn’t look as strong as you do.” 

“ I am strong,” agreed Rose, and unconsciously 
straightened her shoulders, only to be reminded that 
the delicate dress she had on was scarcely equal to 
such vigorous movements. 

A few minutes later, walking along the road 
again with Roger, she drew a deep breath. “ I’ve 
lost some of my prickles,” she remarked encour- 
agingly. “ Just being with those two women 
makes me feel pleasanter.” 

“We ought to have stayed longer,” Roger 
330 


GOOD NEWS 


chuckled. Then, seriously, They are peaches, 
though. I was flabbergasted the other day to hear 
all that Miss Eunice does besides managing their 
farm and working on it, too. Why, she’s on the 
school-board, and she’s superintendent of the Sun- 
day School ” 

“And she goes post-haste to anyone who needs 
her,” Rose interrupted eagerly, “ and Father says 
she’s at the head of every improvement they put 
through here. And my little Miss Emmy is just 
as busy in her way.” 

“ They believe in service all right,” Roger went 
on. “ That’s what Mr. Pearson is always dinging 
into Arch and me. He says that service is the 
biggest thing anyone can put into his life. Do you 
believe that? ” 

“ Why, yes — I suppose so — I never thought 
much about it,” Rose hesitated, feeling self-con- 
scious over talking about anything like this on a 
country road when she was in search of some gay 
and novel thing to do. “ Oh, I don’t believe I know 
just what you mean,” she ended impatiently. 

“ Yes, you do.” Roger felt somewhat involved 
himself now, having come suddenly to the knowl- 
edge that this conversation was likely to lead him 
into puzzling ways. “ It’s easy enough to see what 

service means. Why, it means ” he stooped to 

tie his shoe, which kindly came to his relief at that 

331 


THE SHELDON SIX 


moment, and rose again with a red face — from 
stooping, probably. “ Well, as nearly as I can 
put it into words, it means giving the — the next 
fellow a shove when you know he needs it.’’ He 
emphasized the word shove with an involuntary 
gesture which poked Rose’s hat over her eyes. 

“ Ouch! My new hair-do,” she murmured, and 
expected him to laugh and apologize, but instead 
he looked at her with perfect seriousness, and went 
on following out his train of thought. 

“ Ramsay believes in service,” he declared. 
“And how about you and what you do for Lissy? 
You’re it.” 

“ Oh, no.” Rose was stubbornly opposed to tak- 
ing any credit to herself. “ It’s not the same thing 
at all. That just comes in the — the everydayness, 
as Miss Eunice called it. I do it because I can’t 
get rid of it.” 

“You really mean that you do it because you 
won’t feel like a good sport if you don’t.” Roger 
wore an expression of exceeding wisdom. “ It’s 
service just the same. I’m going to ask Mr. Pear- 
son if it isn’t.” 

“Oh, fiddle! Let’s talk about something else. 
If we argue I shall get back the prickles I lost. I 
don’t dare even to think hard for fear I shall crack 
this dress. I must have grown awfully since ” 

“ Listen! ” Roger interrupted, and at once Rose 
332 


GOOD NEWS 

caught the sound of boyish voices. Roger was look- 
ing about him, “ Say, you can see Ram’s club- 
ground by just walking a few steps. I never went 
to it from this side so I wasn’t expecting it. Who 
do you suppose is over there? ” 

“ I haven’t the faintest idea and I wouldn’t walk 
two steps to find out.” 

“ Do you mind ” — Roger looked at her with his 
engaging smile — ‘‘ do you mind standing perfectly 
still — so that you won’t hurt your dress or your 
shoes, I mean — ^while I see what’s doing? ” 

“ Oh, go along,” Rose assented with a sigh. Of 
course she didn’t want to wait in the sun. Why 
were boys so inquisitive? She didn’t care a snap 
who was over there. She glanced down at her 
shoes, and tried to make herself think that she felt 
more comfortable than she did when she started. 
Luckily they hadn’t much farther to go. 

Roger came back full of mysterious enjoyment. 
‘‘ What do you think? ” he chuckled. “ It’s Ellis 
and Archie there. I suppose it’s too hot to play 
games, so they’ve divided the kids into two groups, 
and they’re reading to them. Do you get me? 
Old Arch is reading aloud.” 

“ I can believe that just as easily as I can about 
Ellis. I never knew that boy to be willing to read 
six words aloud at home. But they think anything 

that Neil wants them to do Rose left her 

333 


THE SHELDON SIX 


sentence unfinished and started along the road. 
“ Come on; I don’t want to hear about persons who 
are working so hard,” she said curtly. 

Roger, just a little behind, grinned cheerfully at 
the back of her head. It was quite an exciting ad- 
venture, going about with Rose, he was thinking. 
You never knew whether the next thing you said 
might bring you into trouble or not. 

They walked on in silence for a few minutes, 
until a guiding sign warned them to turn into a path 
which led away from the road. Then almost at 
once they were in sight of the Blossom Tea-House. 
Before they reached it, however, a boy dashed out 
from the rear of the house, and came toward them 
with such speed that they both dodged out of the 
path to escape him. 

‘‘ D-don’t stop me,” he said as he passed them. 
“ Somethin’s the matter with the freezer and I’ve 
got to horry Miss Dean’s.” 

Rose gave Roger an anguished glance. “Do 
you suppose we can’t have any ice-cream now that 
we’ve walked way over here? ” she asked appeal- 
ingly. And then without waiting for his answer, 
“ Thank goodness, they don’t have to use a freezer 
for lemonade. I’m going in, anyway.” 


334 


CHAPTER XVIII 


THE BLOSSOM TEA-HOUSE 

There were tables on the porch, but the sun was 
shining on them, and Rose went into the house. 
Here two rooms had been thrown into one, and 
there were tables painted white to match the wood- 
work, and thin, blue-bordered curtains which were 
beginning to feel a breath of air. A vase of 
flowers stood on each table, and in one corner was 
a stand which held a blue bowl filled with water- 
lilies. 

“ Isn’t this cool-looking? ” sighed Rose, sitting 
down at once. “ I’m glad we got here early. If 
the ice-cream is as good as all this looks I shan’t 
have a prickle left.” 

“ Suppose there’s isn’t any,” Roger said, smiling 
at her. “ What’ll you do if the freezer’s out of 
commission? ” 

“ Stay here until the borrowed one gets busy. 
I feel just like sitting still in this room, and you 
can’t make me believe that Miss Eunice’s freezer 
would let me go home unsatisfied.” 

335 


THE SHELDON SIX 


“ You sound like Connie,” Roger chuckled. 

“No, not really!” Rose looked at him in ex- 
aggerated dismay. “ That is the kind of thing she 
would say, isn’t it — pretending a freezer might have 
kind feelings. Goodness! I must be careful. 
Sometimes I’m really afraid I am growing an 
imagination.” She had so worried an air that 
Roger laughed again. 

“ You’re the limit,” he remarked. “ Do grow 
one; you’ll need it in your business. Why doesn’t 
someone come, I wonder. I’ve a great mind to go 
hunting for them.” 

“ Don’t get impatient, child,” Rose said sooth- 
ingly, and just then they heard a sound as of some- 
one approaching. The next moment a girl came 
hurrying into the room and stopped at sight of 
them. 

“ Oh, I beg your pardon,” she said breathlessly, 
“ we were in the cellar trying to fix the freezer and 
I never heard a sound.” 

“ I hope that doesn’t mean we can’t have any 
ice-cream,” Rose said with anxiety, and was relieved 
when the girl assured her at once that they were 
trying to make an extra amount, because it was such 
a warm day. 

“We have vanilla and caramel ready, and cakes 
and a fruit lemonade,” she went on, and Rose 
noticed that she looked pale, and put her hand on 
336 



“OH, HOW DEUCIOUS!” 



I 


THE BLOSSOM TEA-HOUSE 


the back of a chair as she talked. In her white 
dress and apron and pretty Dutch cap she was as 
cool-looking as the room. 

“ Caramel for me! ” exclaimed Rose, and Roger 
made his choice, and added that they would have 
cakes and lemonade. 

“ You never asked the price of anything, and 
things are expensive in a place like this,” teased 
Rose, when the girl had departed. “ What’ll you 
do if you haven’t enough money? ” 

“ Give her all I have and leave you here as a 
pledge until I can go for more.” 

“ Many thanks. I’ll tell you a better way: you 
could work it out. That girl looks as if she needed 
help. She’d be pretty if she weren’t so pale.” 

“ I wanted to offer to fix the freezer, but I don’t 
know one from — from a sewing-machine. Archie 
likes to fuss with machinery, but I’m a perfect 
noodle at it.” 

“ Well, cheer up. You can tinker it if your 
money gives out.” 

“Do I have to work it out for both of us?” 
Roger lowered his voice in anticipation of the sound 
of returning footsteps. “ How about you? ” 

“ This is your party, but I’ll — oh, how delicious ! ” 
In one glance. Rose took in the frosty mounds of 
ice-cream, the plate of crisp, sugary cakes, the tall 
glasses with their fruity nectar. 

337 


THE SHELDON SIX 


The girl lifted a dish from the tray. “ The — 
caramel — ^is yours — I think,” she said in a curious, 
halting way, as if each word were carved in dis- 
comfort. Then the tray slipped, glasses crashed 
on the table, a deluge of ice-cream and icier lemon- 
ade splashed into Rose’s lap, and the girl herself 
toppled limply backwards. 

Roger sprang just in time to ease her to the 
floor. “ What am I going to do with her? ” he 
asked helplessly. “ Why didn’t she sit down if she 
felt that way? ” 

“ Don’t hold her head up. Lay her flat.” Rose 
got out of the far side of her chair and dislodged 
from the front of her dress ice-cream mixed with 
glass and lemonade. “ Now get some water and 
And the sister.” 

Roger hurried, not sorry to have an excuse for 
leaving the pale, still person, who lay with closed 
eyes on the floor, and did not mind that so distress- 
ful a thing had happened in her pretty tea-room. 
He found water in the next room and came back 
with it. Then he went cellar-ward in search of the 
sister. 

When they came into the room Rose was say- 
ing, “ You’re all right now; you’re — all — ^I'ight,” in 
a voice that evidently was convincing, for, as her 
sister bent over her, the girl opened her eyes and 
tried to smile. 


338 


THE BLOSSOM TEA HOUSE 


“ I’m all right, Martie,” she repeated faintly; 
and a moment later, “ Can’t you get me out of here? 
Someone may come,” she half whispered. Then 
her eyes clung to Rose. “ Did I — did I bring the 
tray?” she inquired anxiously. “Was the — the 
lemonade cold enough? ” 

“ Oh, absolutely,” Rose assured her, in her sur- 
prise almost giving away by a shudder the fact that 
she was still feeling its iciness. “ We can carry 
her out of here,” she went on quickly, “ if you’ll 
only tell us where.” 

“ There’s a couch on the back porch,” said the 
older sister, finding her voice at last and getting up 
to lead the way. 

“ Did you ever see such a baby? ” questioned the 
younger girl faintly, as they laid her on the couch. 
“ I suppose I might have walked, but I thought if 
I kept still ” 

“ That you’d get over it sooner,” Rose helped 
her to finish. “ That’s sensible of you,” she went 
on. “ You ought to lie here for the rest of the 
afternoon.” 

“ Yes, but what is poor Martie to do when the 
rush comes? ” She smiled at her sister, who looked 
almost as white and tired as she did. “ You run 
away, Martie, and be ready. I’ll stay here for a 
few minutes and ” 

“ I’ll tell you what’s going to happen.” Rose 
339 


THE SHELDON SIX 


had an illuminating idea. “ You’re going to stay 
here just as I said, and I’ll borrow your apron 
and cap and carry trays. I’m crazy to try on 
that cap. We can think up something for 
you to do, too, Roger,” she ended kindly, as 
if she knew his one aim in life was to be kept 
busy. 

“ Sure. I’ll help,” he mumbled, and then went 
on with sudden energy, “ I believe I know some- 
thing I can be doing right now.” 

He departed, and Rose, who guessed what he 
meant to do, held her breath for fear a clinking of 
broken glass might give a hint as to what had hap- 
pened in the tea-room. 

The older girl evidently feared that, too, for she 
came out of her dazed condition, and color stole 
into her cheeks. “ Honey-girl, of course you’re 
going to lie right here,” she said, “just as 
Miss ” 

“ I’m Rose Sheldon,” smiled Rose. 

“ Thank you. My name is Martha Prentis, and 
this is my young sister, Mildred, and I’ve been 
letting her work too hard. I can get along per- 
fectly well without you, Milly, and probably no one 
will come now that we’ve prepared for an extra 
number.” 

“ Well, you can’t get along without me,” per- 
sisted Rose. “ If you’ll only lend me an apron I’ll 
340 


THE BLOSSOM TEA-HOUSE 

show you how smart I am. And IVe just got to 
wear that cap.” 

“ There’s a fresh one up-stairs, Martie,” mur- 
mured Mildred, too weary to resist this offer of 
help, “ and a clean apron; and wouldn’t you like to 
put on one of my white skirts — that one of yours 
is so exquisite, and you might get something on it.” 

“ Oh, this? ” Rose asked. She had been standing 
with the front of her skirt carelessly folded over. 
“ This is a good old dress, but it is rather delicate. 
I think I should like to borrow a skirt.” 

Up-stairs with Martha, Rose unwillingly dis- 
closed the ravages made by ice-cream and lemonade. 

“ Oh, that’s awful,” said Martha Prentis in dis- 
may. “ I was so anxious about Milly I never 
looked at you. Oh, what can we do about that? ” 
Not a thing — except lend me a waist and skirt. 
And don’t let your sister know.” Rose answered 
with such calm decision that the older girl, who was 
near the end of self-control, got hold of herself 
again. 

“ You’re splendid to take it this way. I’ll show 
you where Milly keeps everything, and then I’ll 
run down-stairs.” A few minutes later she de- 
parted, but came back again almost immediately. 
“ Don’t think of trying to serve,” she said earnestly. 
“ You slip away, and I’ll make it all right with Mil- 
dred. I can manage to do the whole thing for this 

341 


THE SHELDON SIX 


one afternoon.” She was flushed and her eyes were 
tired, but an unconquerable spirit looked out from 
them. 

“ I’m going to have the time of my young life,” 
Rose responded lightly. “All day I’ve been aching 
to do something I never did before, and this is 
it.” 

Left to herself she whisked into a white skirt and 
shirtwaist, and then paused a moment to look at 
some white shoes which were standing in the closet. 
“ Too small; I know it without trying them,” she 
murmured, and lifted one foot to gaze reproach- 
fully at her own shoe. “ Please, please don’t get 
any worse than you are now,” she begged, as she 
made an unsuccessful attempt to wriggle her toes. 

Before she got the cap satisfyingly settled on her 
head. Rose heard people coming in, and she hurried 
down to ask Mildred if she would do. 

“ You’ll certainly make them all want to come 
again,” said Mildred with honest admiration. 
“ You’re both of you just too good for words. Did 
you know that Mr. — Mr. Roger has fixed the 
freezer? ” 

Rose turned on Roger. “ Why, I thought you 
said 

“ It’s a simple matter to do those things when 
one is clever about machinery,” Roger interrupted. 
“ This time it just happened that I stepped on a 
342 


THE BLOSSOM TEA-HOUSE 


screw and had sense enough to pick it up. Then 
Miss Martha found the hole, and there we were.” 

Rose laughed, but immediately became serious 
again, because Martha was approaching her with 
a tray. For an instant it seemed to her that she 
couldn’t go through with it; that she would have to 
give up, and let them find their own way out of 
their troubles; then she gripped the tray firmly and 
walked into the next room. 

Fortunately these first guests were two ladies, 
both so much interested in the story one of them was 
telling that they took small notice of anything else. 
Rose was sure they didn’t know the difference be- 
tween her and the one who took the order, and this 
gave her courage and a chance to learn her business. 

The third time she went out with an order to be 
filled she found Roger waiting for her behind the 
screen which concealed the doorway into the kitchen. 

Let’s make it a relay race,” he muttered, taking 
the tray from her unresisting grasp. “ I can save 
you a few steps, anyway.” 

She was glad to lean against the side of the door 
while he filled the tray, and the next time she came 
out a chair was ready for her. 

After a while there was no chance to sit down. 
With the tables filled on the porch and in the room. 
Rose began to wonder how much longer she could 
make her aching feet do their duty. She would 
343 


THE SHELDON SIX 


have given a good deal for a chance to put on her 
garden shoes. In imagination she could hear the 
comfortable clump-clump of them, and feel their 
cool spaciousness. These shoes were red-hot 
prisons. 

“ What time is it? ” she asked Roger when she 
went out with her tray on what seemed to her the 
thousandth journey. She wished she had Jimsey’s 
pedometer and could tell how many miles she had 
walked. 

‘‘ Five-thirty. Say, Rose, what did I tell you 
would happen if a kind act looked crossways at 
you? ” 

“ Oh, fudge ! What did I tell you about wanting 
to do something I’d never done before? ” Rose 
tried to carry it off lightly, but involuntarily 
she drew up one foot with a whistling sigh of 
pain. 

“ Gosh! Is it as bad as that? If I only knew 
where to get hold of Archie I’d make him bring 
over some old shoes for you.” Roger was so full 
of sympathy that it was all Rose could do to bear 
up under it. 

“ Well, you don’t know,” she snapped. “Any- 
way, it’s thinning out now, and it can’t be much 
longer that these greedy people will keep on com- 
ing. I don’t see how they can eat so much.” She 
sounded cross, but her eyes were appealing. 

344 


THE BLOSSOM TEA-HOUSE 


“ Rose Sheldon, you sit down and eat some ice- 
cream yourself. I’ll wait on the others.” 

‘‘ It’s noble of you, but I’m in it and I’m not 
going to spoil my record. There comes someone 
else.” 

It proved to be two ladies whom Rose had often 
seen sitting on the piazza of the hotel, and she 
fancied they stared at her oddly, and wondered 
why. 

After she had served them, some young people, 
just back of the two ladies, called her and asked 
for a second serving. They took so long over their 
order that Rose, standing first on one foot and then 
on the other, had time fully to realize how uncom- 
fortable she was. For a moment she forgot every- 
thing but that, and then, from the table behind her, 
came distinctly a bit of conversation which was not 
intended for her ears. 

“ She’s the daughter of that Mr. Sheldon. There 
are six children and no mother. Mrs. Porcher tells 
me, though, that it’s quite a settled thing between 
him and that pretty Miss Graham, who’s boarding 
at the hotel just now.” 

“ Six children ! Heavens ! What would make 
her step into anything like that? She’s very 
charming, and they say she has enough money ” 

And just then Rose was called back to her sur- 
roundings by an order, so distinctly spoken that she 
345 


THE SHELDON SIX 


realized it must have been given before. ‘‘ I beg 
your pardon. Two caramel and two vanilla, four 
lemonades and cakes? ” she repeated mechanically, 
and as she departed heard one of girls say, “ She 
looks as if she were walking in her sleep.” 

“ I hope I am,” she said to herself, and then, 

“ What gossips people are. How absurd ” 

before she could finish that thought another came 
with chilling force. “ Perhaps it’s true! ” By the 
time she reached the door a dozen things had 
crowded into her mind to prove it. 

Roger met her eagerly. “ Miss Martha says she 
can manage perfectly now, and I did ’phone Arch, 
and he’ll be over by the time we can get out to the 
road.” He had expected she would rebel, and had 
hurried out his words scarcely looking at her. 
When she said nothing, he gave a quick glance at 
her, and was frightened by her queer expression. 
It seemed to him that she hardly saw him at all. 

“ Two caramel, two vanilla, four lemonades, 
cakes,” she recited with a sigh of relief. To his sur- 
prise she made no objection to giving up the tray 
and turned at once to the stairs. 

Catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror as she 
went across the room to get her hat. Rose was 
startled by the sight of her face, blotched with 
scarlet, and her eyes, which looked back at her 
strangely. There was a throbbing pain in her head ; 
346 


THE BLOSSOM TEA-HOUSE 

she had never known before what it was to have a 
headache. 

She unpinned the cap and put on her hat; then 
she hesitated — there was something else she ought 
to do. Oh, yes, the apron; and she must take her 
own dress away with her or that nice, tired Miss 
Martha would think she must have it washed. She 
rolled it into a bundle and went slowly down-stairs. 

“ I’m walking off in your clothes,” she said to 
Mildred Prentis, who looked at her so anxiously 
that Rose did her best to brace up and smile. “ I’ll 
bring them back very soon.” 

“ The heat has been too much for you. We ought 
not to have let you do it,” Mildred answered with 
distress in her voice. 

Rose gazed at her helplessly. She couldn’t let 
these girls worry about that. She must explain to 
them that it was something far worse than heat; 

something which they couldn’t help. “ It was ” 

she began, and stopped because Roger was calling. 

“Ready, Rose? Archie’s tooting. Good-bye, 
Miss Mildred. We’ll come over soon and have the 
ice-cream we didn’t eat to-day. Now, Rose! ” 

She shut her eyes in the car and tried not to think, 
but one idea repeated itself over and over: the de- 
termination never to tell what she had heard those 
women say. Something, perhaps the fluttering 
breeze that cooled her forehead, made her remember 
347 


THE SHELDON SIX 


“ all flags flying.” That was what she had said to 
Neil — she must hold on to that. 

She was saying it over to herself when the car 
came to a stop in front of the house, and then all her 
poor little defenses crumbled into nothingness, for 
down the walk came Anne and Father and Miss 
Graham. 

Evidently they had not expected her quite so 
soon, for Anne said, “ Oh, Rose, we thought we 
should have time to walk over to the hotel before 
you got here.” And then, coming nearer to her 
sister, she added anxiously, “Why, Posy!” 

“ It’s too late now,” said Mr. Sheldon, after his 
first glance at his daughter’s face. “ Let’s go in 
and give Rose a chance to get cool.” He put his 
arm around her and propelled her gently toward 
the steps, but half-way there Rose halted and faced 
them again. She was aware of a strange dizziness, 
but she was obstinately sure that no one except her- 
self could have any idea as to her real feelings. 

“ I got very warm and my shoes hurt,” she ex- 
plained in what she thought was her every-day man- 
ner. “ There’s nothing the matter with me.” 
And then a clutching pain made her troubled gaze 
seek Anne’s. “ Oh, Nan,” she cried in piteous un- 
belief, “ when you have headaches are they as bad 
as this? ” 


348 


CHAPTER XIX 


A PERMANENT PEACE 

Of the night that followed Rose’s most distinct 
memory was of pain. At intervals she realized 
that Anne and her father were with her; then they 
turned into Effie and Ellis. She could recall that 
Ellis was almost alarmingly gentle, and that it 
helped her to cling to his hand. After a while the 
pain gradually grew less, and she dropped into the 
depths of sleep. 

It was two whole days before she was allowed to 
be down-stairs again, but now, out on the porch in 
the hammock, with the glory of an August after- 
noon about her, she was beginning to feel like her- 
self, and to dislike keeping still. 

‘‘ I guess I’ll get up. Nan,” she said as her sister 
came out to see if she wanted anything. “ There’s 
no need to be so lazy any longer.” 

“ I’d keep still for the rest of this day. The 
doctor said you could get up to-morrow.” 

“ How did you get that doctor? I thought the 
Brookfield doctor was an old man.” 

“ He is. This one is staying at the hotel and 
349 


THE SHELDON SIX 

Miss Graham begged him to come over here. It 
was Miss Jean to the rescue as usual.’’ 

Rose turned away her face, and a cloud came over 
the serene afternoon. “ Oh, that was it,” she said 
indifferently, and, in spite of herself, shivered. 

“ Cold, Posy? ” Anne was off in an instant to 
get something to put over her. “ These August 
afternoons are a little cool. Just think, in two 
weeks it will be September, and in two more, we 
shall all be skipping back to Melford.” 

Rose wriggled under the enveloping wrap. She 
wasn’t cold, but she should hate to explain that 
shiver. “ You seem to like the prospect,” she said 
with a sigh, and then with a half -ashamed laugh at 
her own contrariness, “ I’m almost as sorry to go 
back as I was to come here.” 

“ Well, of course, I’m wild to get back to school, 
and Mr. Pearson thinks I can take the exams all 

right, but ” Anne hesitated so long and looked 

so far into the distance that Rose called her back to 
the present. 

“ But what? ” she asked impatiently. 

“ Nothing much,” Anne answered, and shook off 
her worried air at once. “ It’s only that I wonder 
sometimes how I’m going to manage school and 
being Effie’s assistant. There are so many little 
things to do.” She was silent for a moment and 
her eyes grew thoughtful again. “ But I’m not 
350 


A PERMANENT PEACE 


going to ‘ trouble trouble till trouble troubles me,’ ” 
she quoted gaily. “ I’ll be back in a little while 
and sit with you,” she ended as she started into the 
house. 

Rose tried not to think of what Anne had said 
about having so much to do, and failed. Nowadays 
she found it more difficult to manage her mind than 
she had in Melford; there she promptly forgot the 
things that bothered her, but here they stuck around 
until they got an answer. Probably the right an- 
swer to this was that she would have to play fair 
after school began, and take some of the duties off 
Nan’s shoulders. This conclusion seemed so evi- 
dent that she couldn’t argue it ^ven with herself. 

“ Feeling better. Posy? ” It was Father com- 
ing out of the house. “ To-day you look pretty 
much like my second daughter.” 

“ That’s who I am,” Rose answered lightly. 
“ To-morrow I’m going to begin to make up for 
lost time. What’s doing now. Daddy? You look 
as if you were going somewhere.” 

‘‘ I am. I’ve just telephoned to ask Miss J ean 
to go over to Neil’s club-ground and listen to this.” 
He waved a manuscript with an air of triumph. 
“ If she doesn’t like it this time there’ll be war,” he 
went on with a laugh, “ and I shall call on my chil- 
dren to defend me. Good-bye, darling; see you at 
supper.” 


351 


THE SHELDON SIX 


He went quickly down the path and turned at the 
sidewalk to lift his hat to Rose, who realized anew 
what a difference the summer in Brookfield had 
made in him. “ He looks as if he could do an3dhing 
he made up his mind to do,” was her instinctive 
thought, and the next moment she was wondering 
for the hundredth time whether what that woman 
said in the tea-house was true. 

She could not keep her mind away from this 
subject for long, try as she might, and though she 
was distressed by the fear that her father might 
marry Miss Graham, she was often angry over the 
memory of the surprised voice which had said, “ Six 
children! What would make her step into any- 
thing like that? ” 

After all. Rose couldn’t see that six children 
would be so very bad when they had such a nice 
father, and she somehow felt that Daddy ought to 
have everything he wanted. And then her mind 
would change suddenly, and she would decide that 
it wasn’t true, and vow that she never should men- 
tion it to anyone, and that she couldn’t bear it if it 
happened. 

It wasn’t a restful thing to be perpetually think- 
ing over one subject and never really making up 
one’s mind; and though, in a few days. Rose felt as 
strong as ever physically, there was a troubled look 
in her eyes, and a lack of zest in the good times, 
352 


A PERMANENT PEACE 

which made her father wonder if that headache had 
been more serious in its effect than he had supposed. 

When the first of September arrived, Anne and 
her father had to go to Liston, the nearest large 
town, to adjust some final business in connection 
with the property Anne had inherited. Miss Eu- 
nice Dean, hearing of this, immediately asked them 
to motor over with her in her car. And then, be- 
cause Connie had been troubled by a tooth, they 
added her to the party so that she might see a 
dentist. 

Rose was down at five-thirty to see them off, and 
to her surprise, Jimsey also appeared, face and 
hands specklessly clean, his curly hair as smooth as 
it could be made, shoes shining, his best suit on. 
He was quiet, but he busied himself putting the 
bags in the car — they were to stay over one night — 
helping his sisters, shaking hands with Miss Eunice 
and inquiring for Miss Emeline, asking the latest 
news of the chauffeur’s dog, in short, filling the 
atmosphere with his radiant personality to such an 
extent that no one could ignore him. 

Miss Eunice regarded him with her cheerful 
smile. Jimsey,” she said, “ should you like to go 
with us? ” 

“ Sure I would.” He looked toward his father, 
and at the same instant caught a whispered direc- 
tion from Connie. “ Thank you. Miss Eunice, I 
353 


THE SHELDON SIX 

should like to go; may I, Daddy?” he said all in 
one breath. 

“ How long will it take you to get ready, son? ” 

“ Two — shakes.” The words trailed back to 
them from the porch as Jim ran. In an unbeliev- 
ably short time he was back, carrying a small 
satchel, blissfully content. 

“ I had it all packed,” Rose heard him explain. 

“ I hoped perhaps ” the starting of the car 

made her lose the rest of it, and then she waved 
until there was only a dim shape in the distance. 

The house was so still that ‘Susan overslept, and 
came down after Rose and Ellis had gone into the 
garden to work. She was aggrieved, because she 
had not been called in time to say good-bye to the 
others, but when she heard that Jimsey had gone 
with them her deepest feelings were hurt. 

“ They would have tooken me, too, if I’d been 
there,” she wailed, while Effie buttoned her dress. 
“ Connie might have waked me, or Anne or Daddy. 
Pwobably Wose wouldn’t let them — she wanted me 
for company.” It was only the promise of dough 
to make thimble-cakes which at last lightened her 
sorrow, and in spite of Effie’s protestations, she 
cherished a sense of resentment against Rose, whom 
she held responsible. Fortunately, Lissy came 
early, and for once they played together without the 
usual disagreements. 


354 


A PERMANENT PEACE 

About noon Archie dashed over in his car to say 
that he and Roger would be there at four for tennis 
if that suited Rose. 

“ Of course. And you can stay for supper. 
WeVe got such a small family that Effie won’t mind 
a bit.” 

“ Thanks. I hoped you’d say that. Don’t ex- 
pect us a minute earlier than four. We’ve got to 
finish up something at the club before Neil gets 
here.” 

“ Ellis heard this morning that he’s coming day 
after to-morrow.” 

“Great Scott! I didn’t know that.” Archie 
started his car. “ By-by. I mustn’t waste another 
second.” He grinned at her cheerfully, feeling that 
in a slight degree he had scored this time. 

Rose cleared the table and wiped the dishes after 
dinner. “You look tired, Effie; why don’t you 
take a nap? ” she said, as she put away the last 
dish. 

“ Mebbe I will.” Effie started toward the stove 
to get the teakettle, and at the second step planted 
her foot on a pencil which had rolled from the table. 
With a little cry she slid along helplessly and al- 
most went down, but recovered her balance in time 
to drop into a chair instead of on the floor. 

“ Oh, Effie! Did it hurt you dreadfully? ” 

Effie nodded with set lips. “ It’s the same ankle 
355 


THE SHELDON SIX 


I hurt years ago,” she answered, holding her foot 
with both hands. “ It’s awful for a while, but I’ll 
probably be able to hobble by to-morrow. I guess 
I’ll go up-stairs.” 

She looked so pale that Rose was frightened. 
“ If Ellis is still here he can carry you,” she began, 
but Effie stopped her. 

“ It’ll be easier for me to crawl,” she said de- 
cisively. ‘‘And then if you can get a few things 
for me I can fix it myself.” 

Twenty minutes later Effie was sitting in her big 
rocking-chair with her ankle properly bandaged 
and resting on another chair. “ I believe you put 
that on as well as one of those trained nurses could,” 
she said, peering at the bandage which Rose’s first- 
aid training had enabled her to adjust. “ You do 
learn somethin’ at school, don’t you? ” 

“A little,” Rose answered with a relieved laugh. 
“ Now I’m going to get you a pitcher of water, and 
is there anything else you’d like? ” 

“ Not a thing. My foot feels easier already, and 
I believe I can go to sleep by and by. This rockin’- 
chair’s been such a comfort.” 

When Rose came back she brought with her a 
small bell. “ If you want anything ring this and 
I’ll be here in a jiffy.” 

“ I ain’t goin’ to need anythin’, but you can put 
it on the toilet-table. And after a while, if Susan 
356 


A PERMANENT PEACE 


gets fidgety, you might send her up here. She likes 
to hear ’bout when I was little.” 

Rose’s hand lingered on the shining toilet-table 
as she set the bell there. She loved it still and she 
still wanted to make over her room. Perhaps if 
they should come here another summer 

“ If we come here next summer,” Effie went on 
astonishingly, “ I should like to bring the sewing- 
machine along and have it in my room in place of 
that. It’s got a flat top, you know, and it would 
do for a table.” 

“ So it would.” Rose felt as if someone had 
given her a present. “ Now, Effie, don’t worry 
about anything. I’ll come up often to see how 
you’re getting on and I’ll bring your supper.” 

At four it was so evident that there must be a 
thunder-shower before long that Rose sent Lissy 
home with one of the neighbors who was driving 
that way. Susan, highly displeased at being de- 
prived of her playmate, not only said so, but frankly 
scorned all substitute occupations suggested by her 
sister. 

“ Why don’t you go up softly and if Effie is 
awake ask her if she wants anything? ” Rose said 
finally. ‘‘ Perhaps she’d like to have you sit with 
her.” 

“ Don’t want to,” answered Susan, but she went 
up the back stairs, nevertheless, dragging her feet 
357 


THE SHELDON SIX 


and kicking each step as she ascended. Half an 
hour later she came down again to find Rose in the 
kitchen making preparations for supper. 

“ Effie doesn’t want a thing,” she said sulkily. 
“ I don’t see why they took Jimsey this morning. 
And you sent Lissy home.” 

“ Oh, for goodness’ sake don’t begin on that 
again.” Rose’s tone was sharp. “ I’m going to 
have a serve-self supper — right here in the kitchen. 
Don’t you think that will be nice? ” 

“ Uh-huh,” agreed Susan indifferently. To her 
a serve-self promised nothing, and she didn’t like 
the sound of it. Unless it meant that you could 
help yourself to what you liked. An open glass of 
jelly stood on the table against which she was lean- 
ing, and near it a spoon. Rose was in the pantry 
now, and Susan felt that she could pass a few mo- 
ments pleasantly. 

“ Susan Ellis Sheldon! ” Rose suddenly pounced 
upon what was left of the jelly, and the spoon 
dropped with a clatter. 

“ You said it was a serve-self,” whimpered Susan. 
“ I thought I’d begin and see how I liked it.” 

“ Well, you run off now and find something to 
do till I get things ready,” pleaded Rose, priding 
herself on keeping cool under great provocation. 

“ I want to stay here. I’ll fix this table for you. 
It’s mussy.” Susan turned quickly and with one 
358 


A PERMANENT PEACE 

sweep of her elbow knocked a glass and a cup to 
the floor. 

“ That’s about enough. You go somewhere and 
stay till I call you.” Rose removed her hastily 
from the confusion she had made. “ Go out and 
see if the chickens have gone to bed,” she added, 
softening a little. 

“ Don’t want to.” Susan was at the doorway of 
the small hall which led to the back door, and she 
looked gloomily at her sister, and uttered the well- 
known threat which always popped into her mind 
in an emergency like this. ‘‘ Guess I’ll wun away.” 

Rose laughed. “ Oh, Susan, that’s old. If you 
do go, be sure to pack a suit-case.” 

“ That’s old, too,” responded Susan crossly, and 
two minutes later Rose heard the back door open 
and shut softly. 

“ Gone to see the chickens, I suppose,” she said 
to herself, and instantly the thought of Susan 
dropped from her mind as she absorbed herself in 
her preparations. 

It was almost an hour later when the three boys 
arrived. “ Sorry about the tennis. Rosy, but we 
couldn’t get away,” Ellis began. 

‘‘ It doesn’t matter. I couldn’t have left the 
house, anyway, because Effie’s hurt her foot.” 

“ That’s too bad,” Archie said. “ Say, Rose, 
I’ve just got a letter that’ll make you sit up and 
359 


THE SHELDON SIX 


take notice. It’s from Uncle.” He looked at her 
expectantly, and Rose tried to guess why his uncle’s 
letter should have a special interest for her. 

“ I thought you’d be awfully excited,” he went 
on disappointedly. “ I bet you’ve forgotten I was 
going to write to Uncle about Lissy. Well, my 

letter’s been chasing him, and now he says ” 

Archie turned to the typewritten sheet to find his 
uncle’s exact words. ‘‘ Here it is ! He says he 
will provide the money for Lissy ’s expenses and 
education for the next ten years, if the Sheldon 
family will see that she’s taken care of and has the 
training she needs.” 

“ Ten years ! ” To Rose that seemed an eternity. 
“Ten years! Why, Archie, I shall be twenty- 
five.” 

“And Lissy will be nineteen, won’t she? I wrote 
Uncle that she’s about nine, and he thinks that in 
ten years you can tell whether she’s really a genius.” 

“ Isn’t that gi'eat? ” murmured Rose. “ Daddy 
would be glad, I’m sure, to plan about her, but I 
shouldn’t think your uncle would feel that Anne 
and I are old enough to have any say about it.” 

“ Perhaps Miss Graham would help,” Archie 
suggested. “ She and your father could be ap- 
pointed co-guardians, or something of that kind. 
They seem to like to work together on articles. 
Why not on this? ” 

360 


A PERMANENT PEACE 

“Why not?’’ echoed Rose, and looked at him 
with an expression he couldn’t imderstand. It 
seemed to him as if she were asking him to help her 
about something, but, of course, it was all foolish- 
ness to think that. The next moment Her face 
cleared. 

“ I think that’s the loveliest thing I ever heard 
of,” she said with deep conviction. “ Your uncle 
is a wonder. I can’t wait to tell Nan about it.” 
For an instant her eyes seemed to look far into the 
future; then she came back to her practical self. 

“ Go up and get ready for supper now,” she 
decreed. “ We’re going to have a serve-self, and 
then you may wash the dishes.” 

After they had gone Rose took a tray up to 
EfRe, and on the way heard the first big drops of 
rain come pattering down. “ I believe I’ll fix your 
windows now,” she said. “We’re going to have 
a hard shower.” 

She went into the other rooms on that floor and 
called to Ellis to close his windows before he came 
down. She peeped into the storeroom, and saw 
at a glance that its small high windows had not been 
opened to-day. “ That’s one of Nan’s duties that 
I forgot,” she said to herself as she went down- 
stairs. 

By this time the rain was pouring, and tHe thun- 
der came quickly after the lightning. As she 
361 


THE SHELDON SIX 


reached the kitchen, a blinding flash, followed by 
crashing thunder, startled her. And then it was 
as if something opened in her mind to let the 
thought of Susan take the place of everything else. 

Where was Susan? When did she come back 
into the house? Rose realized with sickening fright 
that she had looked into every room up-stairs only 
a moment ago. Every room except where the boys 
were. She went rapidly through the down-stairs 
rooms, looking in closets and under sofas; then 
softly up-stairs again. She must not let EflSe 
know — she was so devoted to Susan. Rose spoke 
through the closed door to Ellis and got the an- 
swer she expected. Then it occurred to her that 
Susan might be in the barn, and she hurried down- 
stairs and out into the rain. 

When she came in again the boys were just com- 
ing down the back stairs. “ Have you seen Susan? ” 
she gasped. The color had left her face and she 
was dripping with rain. “ Don’t speak so Effie 
can hear. Susan said she was going to run away. 
I haven’t seen her for an hour, and I’ve looked 
everywhere.” 

Ellis grasped her shoulders and gave her a little 
shake. “ Brace up,” he commanded. ‘‘ We’ll find 
her. She’s probably gone to someone’s house. I 
might telephone ” 

“Not while the shower’s so bad,” said Archie. 

362 


A PERMANENT PEACE 


“ I’ll take the car and inquire at the houses, and 
you and Roger go into these near-by fields. She’s 
used to playing there.” 

“ I can go out, too,” Rose said with a little color 
stealing into her face. 

“ You stay right here.” Ellis was firm. ‘‘ S’pose 
she should come back by herself. And you mustn’t 
leave Effie alone. We’ll keep in touch with you by 
’phone as soon as the shower grows less.” 

When they left Rose felt terribly alone. She 
walked from room to room, stopping now and then 
to look out of the window until the blinding flashes 
drove her away. It was so dark that she turned 
on the lights in the hall and the living-room. She 
wanted to go to Effie, but was afraid she would ask 
for Susan. 

It began to seem to her hours since the boys had 
left, and just then the clock struck the quarter, and 
she knew she had been alone fifteen minutes. At 
that moment she was in the hall, and almost immedi- 
ately she heard someone on the porch, and the front 
door was opened. 

“ I thought I’d better not wait to ring,” Miss 
Graham said, as she met Rose’s astonished eyes. 
“Archie stopped at the hotel to ask if Susan was 
there.” 

“And you walked over in this awful shower! ” 

“ I couldn’t let him take time to bring me. And 
363 


THE SHELDON SIX 


he said you were alone, and didn’t want Effie to 
know.” Jean Graham was taking off her raincoat 
and drenched cap, and the drops of water on her 
hair sparkled like jewels in the hall light. “ I took 
my chances on your wanting to have me here,” she 
said frankly. 

“ I — I think it’s perfectly dear of you to come,” 
Rose faltered, and then, in spite of everything, 
swept along by some compelling force, “ I know I 
deserve to have you say that. I haven’t been nice 
to you — and lately I’ve been horrid, but if ” — she 
drew in her breath as if she were trying to hold her- 
self back — “ if you had known what those hotel- 
women said at the tea-house.” 

What did they say? ” The question was asked 
so calmly that the next moment Rose found herself 
putting into words what she had firmly resolved 
never to tell. “ I’ve been so unhappy about it,” she 
ended, miserably conscious that this wasn’t a 
pleasant thing to hear. “ I — I couldn’t bear 
to think that someone might take my mother’s 
place.” 

‘‘ Of course you couldn’t. I’m sorry you’ve had 
to keep that locked in your mind all this time.” 
Jean Graham’s voice was full of an understanding 
sympathy. “ There wasn’t any truth in it — 
then.” 

Rose looked at her with a bewildered air. Thev 
364 


A PERMANENT PEACE 


were both oblivious to the strangeness of standing 
in the hall to discuss this, with Susan lost, and the 
thunder booming outside. ‘‘ Do you mean that it 
is — is true now? ’’ she asked faintly. 

“ Partly.” Miss Graham’s candor was disarm- 
ing, and in her eyes a real perplexity seemed to 
demand help. “ I can’t decide to make it true if 
it is going to cause anyone unhappiness. Only 
I want you to believe ” — the steady voice trembled 
and her brown eyes were very soft — “ to believe 
that never for one moment should I think that I 
could take your mother’s place. No one could do 
that. I like you all. I feel that even you and I, 
Rose, should be good comrades — in time. Some- 
how I fancy that I could — could make a place of 
my own in your family.” 

There was a wistful note in her voice that set in 
action the queer whirligig which, for the last few 
weeks. Rose had had in place of a mind. Suppose 
after all Miss Graham should say no to Daddy! 
It wouldn’t be because there were six children, but 
because one of them was so selfish that she couldn’t 
adjust herself to what the others wanted. She 
couldn’t bear to have Father disappointed. And in 
the bottom of her heart she believed she wanted it, 
too. 

“ Oh, please. Miss Jean, do say yes to Father.” 
She was choked and hoarse, but she kept on in spite 

365 


THE SHELDON SIX 


of it. “ I’ll be a good scout, and play fair; and I 
know I’m going to .love being your comrade — if 
you’ll let me try when I’ve been so horrid.” 

Miss Graham put out both hands to her. “ Let’s 
start from this minute,” she began, but was in- 
terrupted by the sound of a repressed chuckle which 
came from the hall above. 

“ Susan!” gasped Rose, and a second later her 
small sister, rosy, good-natured, and looking as if 
she had slept away all her sulkiness, came in a suc- 
cession of bumps down the stairs, and precipitated 
herself fondly on Miss Graham. 

‘‘ Susan, where have you been? ” demanded Rose. 

“ I went into the storewoom to get a suit-case,” 
Susan explained, “ and that old couch looked so 
comfy, I just put my head down there for a few 
minutes.” 

“ Few minutes! And I never saw you when I 
looked in! Oh, I wish the boys would hurry and 
telephone.” Rose knelt down and hugged her sis- 
ter, feeling at peace with all the world. ‘‘ Susan, 
I’m never going to say suit-case to you again.” 

“ All wight,” murmured Susan placidly, and 
turned to Miss Graham. ‘‘ Darling de-ah, you and 
Wose looked so funny. First you scolded and then 
you shaked hands. I always kiss to make up ; why 
didn’t you? ” 

A look of deep understanding passed between 
366 


A PERMANENT PEACE 


Rose and Miss Graham, and in perfect accord they 
moved toward each other. “ We will now,” they 
said together. 


The Books in this Series are: 

THE SHELDON SIX— ANNE 
THE SHELDON SIX— ROSE 
THE SHELDON SIX— CONNIE (in press) 


367 


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